The Machine
by The Amazing Anigirl
Summary: This is why Frisk and Flowey should never mess with Sans' stuff…
1. Chapter 1

So, yeah, Undertale. Best video game I've ever played.

You know a game is amazing when I feel guilty for trying to reset the game and see the different outcomes. You know a game is amazing when a fricking talking flower becomes a downright tragic villain and a pun-loving skeleton becomes a badass boss. Seriously, this is the oddest game I've ever played, and it's also probably the cleverest. I love it, I love it so much, so it was only a matter or time before I contributed a little something to the fandom.

I am a tad concerned about this one because honestly, this game and a lot of the fan-material that has come out in its wake is so good that anything I try is gonna be mediocre by comparison. Nevertheless, I shall do my best and I will appreciate your feedback.

This fic got its spark from a comic called 'If…', by Hazespawn. You can look up the dubbed version of the comic on Youtube or read it on Deviantart. I HIGHLY recommend you check out Hazespawn's work, especially "Judgment Hall". Fantastic, and beautiful as well.

Oh, and also in this story Frisk is a boy (I don't know why, but the second I saw the character I thought 'boy', and the way I played him he sort of came off as boyish in a Oliver Twist kind of way). Chara is a girl in this version. Napstablook is agender. Mettaton is perfection (that's a gender, right?)

Also also, this story has Sans as Frisk's dad, which means implied Soriel (not gonna be directly seen). I support the pairing, but I understand the other side as well (I love Goat Dad too, guys!). Please don't flood the comment section with shipping war bullets, guys, that's what Youtube is for.

Also also also, reviews are appreciated!

Let's begin!

* * *

"it's a beautiful night outside…"

The child felt his sins crawling up his back as he faced off against the skeleton. Sans' left eye was glowing a sinister shade of electric blue.

"crickets are chirping…the stars are shining…"

The skeleton raised his hand and the child felt his soul grow heavy. He looked down and noticed a heart, a dark blue heart, glowing on the chest of his striped jumper.

"on nights like these…kids like you…"

He felt his feet rise off of the ground and, in spite of his efforts to escape the magical grasp, the child was unable to free himself from Sans' blue attack.

"…should be _going to bed!"_

Frisk yelped as he was pulled away from his fort of pillows and right into his step-dad's bony arms. He wriggled and whined.

"No faaaair!" he cried. "Magic attacks aren't allowed! That's cheating, and Mom says cheaters are the worst!"

Sans' left eye returned to its normal shade of white once the little seven-year-old savior of the monsters was securely in his arms. The perpetually smiling skeleton chuckled and began to lackadaisically stroll up the stairs.

"tori also said you had to get eight hours a'sleep or she'd have my head…"

"Well, that'd be a good thing," said Frisk with an impish smile. "'Cause that would make her the _**head**_ **-** master!"

Sans laughed even as, upstairs, he heard his brother cry out in frustrated fury.

"SANS, STOP TEACHING THAT INNOCENT HUMAN SOUL SUCH UNFUNNY HABITS!"

"i'm so proud," was Sans' only response. He had barely been the boy's adopted step-father for a month and already his influence was rubbing off on the kid. By the time Frisk hit puberty he'd be punning like a pro!

"I'm not innocent!" cried Frisk, "But I am determined!"

And with that, the child detached Sans' arm. Frisk (with his step-father's arm still holding onto him) fled to his pillow fort, diving into the plushy structure. Sans, who despite being rather brittle was quite used to having his limbs detached by the occasionally unruly boy, merely strolled over to the fort and peeked inside. Frisk was clutching Sans' arm protectively.

"good escape kid," said Sans, "i'd give you a hand, but you've already got it!"

Frisk giggled. "You said I could stay up a little later…"

"i said that _two hours_ ago. and i said you could stay up an extra ten minutes… _two hours ago."_

"Well, _you_ fell asleep on the job, so whose fault is that?" Frisk retorted.

"good point. still, you've gotta go to bed."

"C'mooon, just a little longer? Mom'll never know."

"oho!" laughed Sans. "she'll know, kiddo, she'll know. tori _always_ knows. Now give me my arm."

"Nuh uh!" replied Frisk obstinately.

"alright, you asked for it…"

"Asked for… _ah!"_ Frisk shrieked as Sans' disconnected arm suddenly turned on him and started tickling his tummy. The child squirmed and squealed, but still refused to release the arm and refused to submit to his long-overdue curfew.

"jeez, you are determined. alright, kid, what's it gonna take?

The tickling paused. Frisk took a deep breath and beckoned for Sans to come closer so he could whisper his desire.

"Tomorrow," he said, "We've gotta go to Muffet's bakery…"

" _blegh!"_ was Sans' response. "you serious? those doughnuts taste like expired spider-webs…"

"I didn't finish," said Frisk, smiling impishly as he added, "And when we go there we've gotta take Uncle Papyrus' convertible…and when we give it back…"

He reached under a nearby pillow and pulled out a whoopee cushion. Sans had to cover his mouth to keep himself from bursting into laugher. He wasn't sure what would be funnier: the freak-out his little brother would have as a result of them borrowing his car or Papyrus' reaction to finding such a funny surprise once he sat down in the driver's seat.

"deal," he said with a wink. "but keep faking resistance for now or pap'll get suspicious."

"Right," agreed Frisk with a wink, handing his step-dad his arm. Once Sans had managed to re-attach his limb his eye glowed cyan and he lifted the child out of his pillow fort and into the air while Frisk loudly objected. The kid was gonna have to work on his acting skills a bit, Sans decided. Even though he was getting better at feigning anger he still smiled that silly smile of his as he 'begged' to be put down (turning up the volume considerably once they passed Papyrus' room).

"SANS, ARE YOU DUNKING THE HUMAN AGAIN!? THE GREAT PAPYRUS CANNOT ALLOW HIS FRIEND TO BE DUNKED!"

"too late!" Sans shouted as he casually tossed the young human into his room. Frisk landed on his pillow, nearly hitting his head on the bed-frame but managing to sit up without bumping his skull.

"six points! no concussions this time!" said Sans. "see you tomorrow, kid…"

His voice trailed off fondly. _See you tomorrow_ was a form of farewell he had only recently started to use. He could do so without feeling like a filthy liar now since the little anomaly that was currently straightening out his blanket had assured him that there would be no more RESETs.

No more RESETs. No more uncertainly. No more tomorrows that would never come. That godly power was no longer in irresponsible hands and Sans could sleep soundly knowing that he would indeed see Frisk and Papyrus and everyone tomorrow.

His good mood was destroyed, however, by a sickly sweet voice: "Tomorrow, Trashbag? Hehehehe! Don't be so certain…maybe tonight's the night I finally decide to strangle this little goody-two-shoes in his sleep and reset it all. Wouldn't you like that?"

Sans cast a hateful blue eye towards a small sentiment flower that was resting in a pot on Frisk's desk. The former cause of all Sans' woes, the hateful entity that had once possessed the power to RESET, smiled devilishly. Flowey had (unfortunately) been living with Frisk since the barrier had been broken. The kid was sometimes too nice for his own good. Not only had he spared the wretched weed, but he'd even gone so far as to scoop the miserable waste of magic into a pot and take him home as some psudo-pet/roommate.

 _Why_ was anyone's guess, but for some reason the kid was attached to the sentient plant. Sans, for his part, trusted the kid's judgment enough to _not_ destroy Flowey with his gaster blasters right then and there.

" _and_ ," said Sans, "how 'bout we go to the park after we, er, _borrow_ pap's car tomorrow? see some flowers that aren't so _thorny_."

He glowered over at Flowey, who rewarded him with a scowl of his own. Sans hadn't known it until Frisk had explained, but it had been Flowey that had been screwing with the timeline for far too long, turning his life upside down and inside out, making him lose all sense of worth and motivation. He had known for some time that something, someone, was messing with the timeline, but his memory hadn't been good enough to remember who it was. Sans had sensed Frisk's power on the day he emerged from the Ruins and had mistakenly thought that he was the horrid anomaly. Not so, and thanks to Toriel he hadn't made the world's biggest mistake by decimating his supposed archenemy right there and then.

No, his archenemy was sitting securely in a pot that Frisk had decorated with all sorts of shimmering stickers. Smiley faces, hearts, rainbows, the congratulatory stickers that Toriel sometimes gave to children who did well on tests, and there was one bright yellow sticker that Frisk and Papyrus had made which read in bright bubbly letters: _Join the Flowey Fan Club!_

Suffice to say, Sans had declined that invitation and the Flowey Fan Club remained a mere two members strong.

Frisk, meanwhile, barely paid any mind to Flowey's threats, but he beamed at the word 'park' and nodded eagerly.

"good. then get some sleep," said Sans, flicking off the lights with a wink and shutting the door.

The room was totally silent for a moment as Frisk sat upon his bed, waiting for his step-dad's sluggish footsteps to fade away. When he was certain that Sans was gone, Frisk turned to Flowey. The moonlight that managed to slip through the blinds allowed him to see that Flowey's expression had changed from one of malice to one of weariness.

"Tired?" Frisk chirped. Flowey huffed.

"Next time you and that comedian decide to jump around like imbeciles, could you do so a bit louder?" sneered Flowey sarcastically. "I think there were some monsters in the Underground that weren't _rudely awakened!_ "

"There aren't any more monsters into the Underground, Flowey, at least not on a permanent basis," said Frisk.

"Ooooh, big words," scoffed Flowey. Frisk hopped off his bed and tip-toed over to his desk. He sat in his chair so that he and Flowey were almost eye-to-eye and smiled at his roommate.

"Why d'you always gotta be so mean when Dad's here, Flowey?" he queried. "You're not usually so mean to me, not anymore."

"Keeping up appearances. Plus I'm getting back at him for the sheer number of resets I had to go through because of him. Also, will you _stop_ referring to that buffoon with a deferential paternal title?!"

"Uhm…what?"

" _Stop calling him 'Dad', you idiot, he's too stupid to be your dad!"_

Rather than reacting with umbrage, Frisk smiled. "Awww, are you saying I'm smart, Flowey?"

"No," denied Flowey hastily. "I'm saying _he's_ stupid."

"He's really not, Flowey. You should know that. Sheer number of resets, after all."

"Point made," snapped Flowey. "Still: if you're gonna refer to someone as 'Dad', at least use the title on someone who has _dad_ qualities. Asgore I could accept-reluctantly, yes, but I could accept. Smiley's not 'Dad' material."

"I think he is," said Frisk with a nonchalant shrug. "Just like I think you're friend material."

"Well, I guess when you put it that way it makes total sense," sneered Flowey, "You're a horrible judge of chara…"

Frisk leaned forward and gave the flower a tiny, affectionate kiss on one of his petals.

"…cter," Flowey finished lamely, turning away so that Frisk wouldn't see his conflicted, confused, and moderately bashful expression. He would sooner be fertilized than admit it, but Frisk had been getting to him. He suspected it was a side effect of him (no, _Asriel_ ) absorbing all of those souls and subsequently regaining all of the emotions he had lacked before. Joy, empathy, love…it had been downright overwhelming and even though he was once again a soulless creature who could never hope to experience the full emotional spectrum again…a bit of that love, joy, and empathy lingered, and nobody brought out the ghosts of those emotions as much as Frisk.

Not that he would ever admit that, of course. He still had to keep up appearances, after all. Couldn't let the kid mold him into a doofy, happy-go-lucky moron like he had everyone else.

"D'you wanna come with us to the park tomorrow?" Frisk offered. "I could hide you in my backpack. Dad won't know. You can stretch your stem a bit, maybe meet a pretty rose while we're out there, pollinate…"

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Flowey admonished. "And I have important sulking to do tomorrow so thanks but no… _mmmnf!"_

He was interrupted as Frisk suddenly covered his mouth with his hand. Flowey scowled furiously at Frisk, but the human child put his finger over his lips, shushing him. He pointed to the blinds and gestured for Flowey to stay quiet while they both peeked out. Flowey's scowl softened with curiosity.

Frisk removed his hand from the plant's mouth and leaned over his desk, his nose brushing against the blinds as he peeked out into the backyard. Flowey did the same and saw what had caused Frisk to suddenly become so cautious: the shed. Sans had gone into the backyard and was opening the shed. The skeleton opened the door wide enough for both Frisk and Flowey to spot something inside, something big and bulky, covered with a sheet.

Flowey frowned deeply. "That looks like one of Alphys' machines," he observed. "Ya' think the comedian's trying to build a machine that'll make his jokes funny?"

"It's for _something_ ," said Frisk. "I asked him about it a couple'a days ago."

"And?"

"He told me a pun and then teleported away."

"Typical."

"What do you think it could be?"

"How in the hell am I supposed to know?"

"Language!"

"Don't make me teach you a bunch'a _new words_ , you prude."

"What'sa prude?"

"Oh, forget it. Golly, you're dumb."

"I'd be smarter if you'd gimme some definitions!"

"Every time I give you some _definitions_ you… _mmmnf!"_

He was once again cut off as Sans exited the shed and Frisk covered his mouth. Flowey released a muffled growl and glared at the human child even as Frisk's great brown eyes were pinned on the stout skeleton, who locked the door to the shed and proceeded to go back inside, no doubt to read Papyrus his mandatory bedtime story.

"Will you _stop_ that?" snarled Flowey once Frisk removed his hand from over his mouth. "We're on the second floor and there's a window between us! He's not gonna _hear_ us from here!"

"Was that a pun?" queried Frisk with an impish smile.

" _No."_

"You'd be surprised. He's got good ears…even though he doesn't have ears."

Frisk pressed his nose against the window, staring at the shed with an inquisitive and determined look that Flowey recognized and despised.

"Curiosity killed the Frisk," Flowey said in a singsong voice.

"Vines."

"Uhm…what?"

"You said sometime ago that you could solve Papyrus' puzzles, right? You got past some of Alpys' traps and Uncle Papyrus' puzzles in other timelines by using your vines and stuff, right?"

"Yes…"

"So…could you sneak into the shed and unlock…?"

"No…"

"I didn't say _would_ I said _could,_ " said Frisk sneakily. Flowey huffed. Damn this kid: he couldn't deny it without selling himself short. Clever boy.

"Yes, I could. _Easily_."

"So…" Frisk batted his eyelashes in the cutest way he could. " _Would_ you?"

Flowey, knowing full well that saying 'no' would just lead to more obnoxious whining and begging and pleading and crying from the boy, decided to get to the point. "Fine, but only because it'll inevitably get _you_ in trouble."

Frisk kissed Flowey once more on one of his petals, causing the sentient flower to turn away in exasperated embarrassment while the boy bounded back to his bed.

"We'll go early in the morning," said Frisk. "Dad'll be at his third job."

Indeed, Sans had taken on a third job (if one counted his job at the illegal hot dog stand situated behind Undyne's house to be a 'job', which, officially, it was not) at one of Mettaton's restaurants on the weekends. They had to pay for Frisk's college fund somehow or another and both Sans and Toriel were quite sure that Temmie wasn't going to be paying back Frisk for his investment in her higher education anytime soon. (Though they _had_ sold Frisk's temmie armor…back to Temmie, who bought it for three times its original price, so Temmie _had_ ended up contributing to the college fund indirectly).

"Won't Toriel be awake?" Flowey pointed out. Frisk laughed.

"Doubt it," he said, "She'll be exhausted. She's gonna be at this parent-teacher meeting all night."

"Which brat is it this time?"

"Artie Johnson."

" _That_ idiot?"

Frisk nodded.

"Didn't I already teach that kid a lesson?"

Frisk laughed. "Yeah: he still wets himself whenever he sees a buttercup."

"Good."

Frisk smiled goofily. "See? You _do_ like me!"

"I do _not_. I wasn't defending _you_ , stupid, I was defending _my_ territory. _I'm_ the only one who gets to try and murder you."

Frisk giggled. "G'night, Flowey. Adventure awaits tomorrow!"

"Joy," grumbled the flower before swiftly following the human child into slumberland.

* * *

BTW, a good way to make a quick buck in Undertale: buy a whole bunch of the 'cheap' Temmie Flakes (1G) and sell them right back to her. Usually she'll buy it for 2G, but occasionally you can get her to raise the price up to 6G. I got like 50G like that. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for gradschool…

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

"GOOD MORNING, TINY HUMAN NEPHEW! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS WONDERFUL NEWS: I HAVE BEEN REWARDED WITH A DAY OFF! OF COURSE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS REQUIRES NO RESPITE FROM HIS DUTIES AS ROYAL GUARD, BUT NONETHELESS I ACCEPTED IN ORDER TO SPEND THE DAY WITH YOU! EMBRACES!"

Frisk was yanked into a hug so fierce and warm that he nearly dropped Flowey's pot. At this point he was used to Papyrus proclaiming every Saturday to be a special 'day off' (he never seemed to catch on that he had _every_ Saturday off and always attributed it to him outdoing himself in terms of greatness and being granted leave). He hugged his beloved uncle right back, snickering as he heard Flowey gag at the affectionate display.

Unfortunately for the sentient flower, Papyrus immediately took note of his presence.

"OH! I SEE YOU HAVE BROUGHT ALONG OUR FLOWER FRIEND! GOOD DAY, FLOWEY! ARE YOU HERE TO SPEND TIME WITH US AS WELL?"

" _No…"_ grumbled Flowey.

"Yes!" chirped Frisk.

" _Frisk…_ "

"We are both ready to be japed today, Uncle Papyrus! But before that, we're really hungry. Could you maybe make us something to eat?"

" _Friiiiiissk…!"_ whined Flowey, but it was far too late as Papyrus' perpetual giant grin somehow managed to become wider as he positively beamed.

"OF COURSE! YOUR MOTHER IS SLEEPING IN…I SUPPOSE MY BROTHER'S LAZINESS IS BEGINNING TO RUB OFF ON HER! BUT AT ANY RATE, I SHALL PREPARE YOU AND FLOWEY A DELECTIBLE MORNING MEAL! WE SHALL HAVE PASTA IN THE MORNING! I'LL EVEN PREPARE THE PASTA WITH A SIDE OF WAFFLES TO MAKE IT MORE APPROPRIATE FOR MORNING CONSUMPTION!"

" _Uggggghhhh…"_ moaned Flowey miserably. Though he admittedly liked Papyrus more than he liked the other members of Frisk's family, one thing that never seemed to change throughout the different timelines was the fact that he couldn't stand Papyrus' cooking. And there was no reset button to save him now.

"YOUR MOAN OF ANTICIPATION IS APPRECIATED, FLOWEY, THOUGH NOT ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED! WOULD YOU CARE TO HELP ME IN THE KITCHEN, FRISK?"

"Actually, Uncle Pap, me and Flowey were gonna go outside and look for some prime spots to lay out puzzles. Besides, we wouldn't wanna get in your way. The more involved you are with the cooking, the better it'll be, so it's better if I'm a hundred percent outta your way so it'll be a hundred percent fantastic."

"Good brown-nosing," snickered Flowey.

"I'm not brown-nosing," Frisk whispered. "What's brown-nosing?"

Flowey rolled his eyes. Papyrus' eyes were shimmering.

"OH, OF COURSE! WELL, I'LL GET STARTED! FIND A GOOD SPOT AND HURRY BACK!"

"You've got it, Uncle!" said Frisk before he scurried out of the house and to the backyard.

"Ugh," gagged Flowey. "You do realize that we're gonna have to _eat_ whatever he cooks, right?"

"He's not that bad, Flowey! Jeez, you're such a critic!"

"You try having the digestive system of a _plant!_ If you think that stuff's hard to eat with a human stomach…"

"Okay, okay," sighed Frisk, wanting to avoid an unnecessary argument, especially one that involved Flowey criticizing his lovable uncle-one of the best parts about having Sans as his dad was the fact that he could now call Papyrus his uncle. That had admittedly been a bit awkward at first, though ("NOW _THIS_ IS MAKING OUR RELATIONSHIP ALL THE MORE REGRETTABLE…WHOOPSIE! PROMISED NOT TO MENTION IT!")

They reached the shed in no time. Frisk experimentally tugged on the door but, unsurprisingly, it was locked. He held Flowey up to the doorknob and asked, "Can you handle it?"

"Plant me," the flower commanded with a smug smile, and Frisk obeyed, scooping his roommate out of his little pot and carefully placing him down on the ground. Flowey dug his roots into the soil, briefly took a moment to enjoy the feeling of warm, fresh soil on his roots, and then quickly burrowed his way underground. Frisk pressed his ear against the door once Flowey disappeared beneath the dirt.

"Flowey?" he cried after a moment of rustling and clinking. The door was thrown open and Frisk fell on his face.

"Ow," he moaned, and he heard Flowey laugh derisively.

"Ha, ha, ha," laughed Frisk sarcastically. "Well, thanks for opening the door anyway. Be careful next time. I almost crushed your pot."

He held up the flower's pot as Flowey used his long, thorny vines to shut the door behind them. The shed instantly became rather dark, but enough sunlight was filtered through the cracks in the roof that Flowey was able to see Frisk and crawl over to him.

"Put me back in," he commanded. "You know I hate crawling on wood. Hurts my roots."

Frisk held down the thankfully undamaged pot and Flowey climbed in. Once Flowey had gotten himself situated once more, Frisk stood up and looked around. There was a small set of drawers in the corner beside the big machine, but Frisk decided to ignore the minnow in favor of the trout and immediately whipped the sheet off of the covered machine.

Flowey had been right earlier: the machine did indeed look like the sort of thing that Alphys would build. In fact, it somewhat resembled the DT Extraction Machine that Frisk had seen in the True Lab, except it was much smaller and had a large hole in the center.

"Looks like one of those things from those movies the skele-moron likes to watch," sneered Flowey as Frisk cautiously stepped inside the machine.

"You mean the sci-fi movies?" replied Frisk. "You're right. Looks like something from _Star Wars_ or _Alien._ Like that thingy that freezes you in time so you can live for a hundred years!"

"When in the world did _you_ watch _Alien_? Didn't Toriel say 'no'?" asked Flowey as Frisk's eyes found a control panel.

"I just saw a bit of it while I was gettin' a midnight snack," claimed Frisk innocently.

"Liar. C'mon, don't bother. I don't care. Those parental warning rating are complete and utter… _Frisk!"_

Frisk's finger was lingering curiously over a big red button. Before the flower could even hope to stop the child, he pressed down on it.

The inside of the machine lit up. The whole area started glowing blue. Flowey felt Frisk hug him tightly to his chest as the room began to disappear into a swirl of cyan.

Then, darkness.

* * *

 _"Hee hee hee…did you REALLY think…"_

 _Blam!_

 _"You…uh…"_

 _Blam! Blam! Blam!_

 _Flowey's demented grin faltered he gazed down at the child, whose worried expression had turned into a grin of surprised delight as he experimentally rammed his soul against the ring of 'friendliness pellets' that the Omega Flowey had surrounded his little red heart with. Instead of causing him to die once more, the friendliness pellets caused his soul to bounce back and make a silly boinging noise._

 _Blam! Blam! Blamblamblamblamblam!_

 _Flowey huffed and changed the image he showcased on his facial screen from the freakish monster he had been presenting during the course of the battle back to his usual floral face._

" _Would you STOP that?!" he cried, and Frisk giggled cheerfully._

" _Nah ah," he chirped. "Too fun!"_

" _Oh, for pity's sake, can you just let me finish what I was…?"_

 _Blam!_

" _I just wanted to…"_

 _Blamblam!_

" _Just…monologue…a bit…"_

 _Blamblamblamblamblamblamblam!_

 _Flowey groaned loudly. "Don't you have anything better to do!?"_

" _Nope," squeaked Frisk, and the noise continued even as Flowey tried his best to threaten the thoroughly entertained child._

* * *

When Flowey came to he was on his side, still in his pot. He groaned, his head buzzing as he looked up and saw Frisk lying nearby.

If he had a heart, it would have stopped.

"Frisk?" he cried. The boy didn't respond.

"Frisk? Frisk! _Frisk!"_

The boy didn't even stir. Flowey snarled in agitated frustration and, straining slightly, managed to roll his way over to the child so that he was nose-to-nose with him. He jabbed at the boy's nose with the tip of his leaf. Frisk flinched and groaned. Flowey sighed with relief.

"Frisk…" he muttered. "You…you…you IDIOT!"

He head-butted the boy.

"Ow!" yelped Frisk, sitting up straight and rubbing his throbbing head. "What was that for?"

"You pressed the _big red button_ , you buffoon!" shouted the sentient flower. "Have you paid _any_ attention to those sci-fi movies?! YOU. NEVER. PRESS. THE. RED. BUTTON!"

"Okay, okay, that was dumb…"

" _Dumb_ is an understatement!"

"Calm down," said Frisk, picking up the flower and plopping him on his lap. "We just gotta find out what…happ…"

He looked around him.

"Oh no…"

He looked down and realized what he was sitting upon: a patch of golden flowers.

 _They must have broken my fall…_

"Oh, no, no, no, no…F-Flowey…I…I think we might have reset."

* * *

Wowie! Thanks a ton for all of the reviews/favs/follows, guys! Special thanks to:

MoogleWing

Manizu

Wolfscry16: Indeed, dog residue is a favorite way to gain money, but the temmie flakes can work if you're too lazy to move and/or solve the piano puzzle. Another great way to make money is to buy a crap ton of Cloudy Glasses from Gerson and sell them to Temmie, who buys them for a lot more money so that you can make up to 20G on every pair of glasses. Undertale: teaching everyday gamers basic marketing.

Lolduude.

Thanks for reviewing, you guys, and I hope you and everyone else enjoyed this chapter.

BTW: The scene with Frisk ramming his soul against the friendliness pellets is actually based off an Easter egg in Undertale that can happen at the end of the Omega Flowey Boss battle. Look up "Flowey Easter Egg" and it'll be the first result. Toby really did think of everything.

Thanks for reading and please review!


	3. Chapter 3

"RESET?" repeated Flowey, his eyes softening a bit when he saw tears beginning to form in Frisk's eyes. The flower shook his head. "No, no, that's impossible…"

Frisk began to sob. "I did bad! I did bad! Oh, no, no, no, I promised Dad no more RESETS…oh, oh…"

He began to cry and his salty tears fell on Flowey's head.

"Frisk, FRISK!" shrieked the flower, "For pity's sake, calm the hell down! You couldn't have RESET!"

"H-how…h-how…do…you…"

" _Because,"_ snapped the sentient flower, "if you _did_ RESET then I wouldn't be here right now. I'd be in the next room, waiting to nearly murder you."

"The…machine…mighta…made…that…different…'cause…we…were both in…side …"

He broke down, hugging the flower tightly and positively bawling.

"Ugh, I'm tempted to rain friendliness pellets down on you right now," mumbled Flowey. "Look, if we _did_ RESET, even if somehow that machine made us _both_ go back and remember, all of your injuries would be gone and you'd still have your stick and bandage from when you first fell. Do you have your stick?"

A brief check in his pockets revealed that Frisk did not have his stick and the bandage was not wrapped around his arm. In fact, the cut on his arm that he'd had when he first fell down was also nowhere to be seen. He looked on his knee.

"I've still got that scab from gym, from last week," said Frisk, wiping away his tears as his heart rate began to steady and the idea that he hadn't completely ruined everything began to become all the more possible.

"See?" said Flowey with a knowing smirk. "So something else is going on. Let's go to the next room. If we don't run into Toriel, we'll know it's not a RESET."

"O-okay…" sniffled the child, wiping his tears away with his sleeve and standing up. He stumbled out of the oh-so-familiar area and into the next room. There was an empty patch of green grass. No Flowey, and after a full minute of waiting it became clear that Toriel was not about to emerge from the shadows to greet him like a stranger instead of her adopted son.

"Y-you were right, Flowey!" cried Frisk with relief, a smile lighting up his face once more. He entered the Ruins and, surely enough, not a single monster came to greet them as they made their way towards Toriel's cozy little abode. No Froggits hopped forth, no Whimsons fluttered by, no Moldsmals wiggled sexily. Nobody came, and Frisk's relief was obvious.

But even as the boy's eyes began to dry and brighten, Flowey's confident grin began to fall as something nagged at his nonexistent soul. He had learned to trust his intuition long ago, and his intuition was telling him that something was wrong.

 _Nothing seems wrong, though,_ he thought as Frisk opened the door to Toriel's old house and called out to her. _Maybe that machine's screwing with me somehow…_

"Mooom?" cried Frisk. "Are you here? Mom?"

No answer. Frisk immediately scurried down into the basement. The door that led out of the Ruins was wide open.

 _Just how he left it…_ Flowey thought, glancing up at Frisk and recalling that the child had failed to close the door back when he had first gone back to the Ruins to retrieve the soulless flower.

Frisk seemed to realize this too as he giggled.

"Oh! Oh!" he cried with eureka. "Flowey, I think I know what happened!"

"And what's that, genius?" asked Flowey. Frisk started to skip towards Snowdin. The sentient flower glanced left and right, trying to hear the sound of a branch being broken or the telltale noise of Sans' teleporting, but they made it to Papyrus' old too-wide bars without so much as a pun from the skeleton. He wasn't there.

"Y'know how Dad can do all of his teleporting stuff?" said Frisk.

Flowey grunted.

"Well," continued Frisk, prancing past the conveniently-shaped lamp and towards Doggo's old station. The nearly blind-hound was also absent.

"I think we just did something like that. Like maybe Dad made the machine at first and then learned to teleport on his own. Like it was a prototype and he just doesn't need it anymore, but when we used it we got teleported back to the Underground!"

"That…makes sense," muttered Flowey without a hint of sarcasm as they passed by Doggo's empty station and continued forth.

"Are you okay, Flowey?" queried Frisk with concern. "You didn't even make fun'a me or anything."

"No…it's…nothing…just a feeling…"

That was an odd thing for Flowey to say. As a soulless being he rarely got _feelings_ any more, pleasant or disturbing, but something about the empty environment caused him to shiver, and not from the cold.

"Let's go check on Mr. Snowman. I haven't seen him since we left!" suggested Frisk as they breezed through Papyrus' already-solved puzzles and moved north to where the Snowman would have usually been standing.

But the Snowman wasn't there.

"Huh," said Frisk, glancing to and fro. "Maybe…he got bored? Maybe the River Person came by and took him on an adventure."

"Well, he couldn't have gone to the surface," said Flowey, knowing that such a trip would involve passing through the Hotland, a trip that would certainly doom the Snowman.

"Let's head to Snowdin," suggested Frisk. "Maybe Dad has something in his old shed that we could use to get back aboveground quicker. It's gonna take us forever if we have to go on foot…and then we'll _definitely_ get in trouble."

" _We?_ " scoffed Flowey, finally managing to smile just a tad as they continued, passing by Papyrus' frozen plate of spaghetti. "You're the sinner in this situation, buddy, I'm not taking blame."

"I won't blame ya', but y'know Dad'll probably make accusations anyway."

"You're probably right on that," grumbled the flower, who was used to taking the fall whenever both he and Frisk were involved in some act of delinquency. (Because of course precious, innocent, angelic Frisk could _never_ be naughty on his own, oh no, it had to be the influence of the evil, soulless _flower_ that caused him to break the rules…)

They made it to Snowdin with hardly a hitch. No monsters confronted them, no puzzles japed them, nothing stood in their way as they made it to the tiny village.

"Ah…Frisk…" muttered Flowey as he observed the shimmering lights on the trees and noted the light pouring from the residential windows, "None of the lights are off."

Frisk didn't pause as he plodded towards Sans and Papyrus' old abode, but he did allow his eyes to flicker to the windows of the other houses. He shrugged dismissively.

"Maybe everyone just decided to be eco-unfriendly on their way out," Frisk suggested with a little chuckle. Flowey frowned, and not at Frisk's lame attempt at humor.

They reached Sans and Papyrus' old house, which was the only home in Snowdin that didn't have its lights on. The house was still decorated with its wreaths and Christmas decorations, but the colorful lights that had previously brightened the abode were all gray.

It was promising, though, since Frisk recalled shutting those lights off when he had helped Sans and Papyrus pack up so that they could move to the surface. He hopped up the porch stairs and knocked on the door.

"Uncle Pap!" he squeaked. "Hello? You there? There's a human right here, ready to be captured with hugs! Uncle Paaaaap?"

No one answered.

"Whelp!" said Frisk, "Looks like he's not here."

"Fantastic."

"Let's look in Dad's shed and see if there's something we can use to get back home…or at least figure out what happened."

Sans and Papyrus both had their own sheds in the Underground. Papyrus' was empty, as he had designated it to be a 'prison' for any humans he captured. Sans' shed, however, was hidden behind the house and though Frisk had stumbled across it during his wanderings, he had never actually entered it.

Frisk planted Flowey in the snowy ground beside the shed. The sentient flower hissed and shivered.

"Sorry, Flowey," said Frisk.

"Y-you o-owe m-me f-for th-this! Ugh, I hate Snowdin!" snarled Flowey before he dunked under the cold ground.

After a few seconds there was a _thunk!_ That _thunk_ was swiftly followed by a pained, "OW!"

"Flowey!" cried Frisk, getting down on his knees and trying to peek under the shed. Flowey popped up beside his face, the petals on his head slightly bent. Frisk could practically see little stars circling the sentient flower's head.

"Ow…" grunted Flowey, and Frisk scooped up his roommate, gazing at him with concern.

"You okay?" he asked. "What happened?"

"There's a two-inch layer of ice covering the bottom of the shed," hissed Flowey, rubbing his sore head with his leafy arms. " _Clear_ ice. Hit my head…"

"Kiss!" chirped Frisk, smooching the top of Flowey's head before he even had a chance to object or duck out of the way.

"Better?" queried the child.

"No…" lied Flowey, hiding his cheeks with his uninjured petals so that the boy wouldn't see the slightly red tint his face had acquired.

"So you can't get into the shed?" asked Frisk. Flowey shook his head.

Frisk yanked out his phone. "I'm gonna call home. Maybe Dad can come pick us up."

"You'll get in trouble…"

"Well, I'm gonna get in trouble no matter what. Might as well get in trouble sooner and get home sooner too."

He dialed his home phone number.

" _Hello,"_ replied a robotic voice instantly. " _The number you've reached is currently unavailable."_

"Huh," said Frisk, "That wasn't even our usual leave-a-message thingy. Lemme call Dad's cell…"

He dialed Sans' phone number.

" _knock knock!"_

A moment of silence.

" _if you're a good sport you said, 'who's there'. no-one!'_

Another moment of silence.

 _Beep!_

"What the heck was that?" asked Flowey.

"His voicebox. He didn't pick up."

"Leave a message anyway, maybe he's just sleeping."

"'Kay. Uhm, hi Dad! Listen, we, uh…"

" _We?!"_ snapped Flowey with a glare.

" _I,"_ Frisk corrected. "I did something bad and now Flowey and me are back in the Underground. We're gonna head back to Uncle Asgore's castle and try to exit the normal way, but if you can, come pick us up! Bye! Love you!"

He hung up and shoved his hand back into his pocket.

"We're gonna _walk?"_ huffed Flowey as Frisk put him back into his pot and balanced the pot (rather impressively) on top of his head.

"Well, _I'm_ gonna walk and _I'm_ gonna carry you," said Frisk.

"All the way to the barrier? Even without anybody trying to kill us, that's going to take forever!"

"Oh, c'mon, it'll be fun! Like a walk down memory lane!"

"Yes, great. 'Oh, look, that's the tree I died next to seventeen times! Such grand memories!'"

"You're such a pessimist, Flowey."

"And _you're_ such an optimist. That's not a compliment, by the way. Where the heck are we going? Have you already lost your sense of direction?"

Indeed, instead of heading east, Frisk was skipping north.

"I wanna see if…ah! Yes!"

"Oh," said Flowey, spotting what Frisk had been hoping to find: a hooded figure that might have been intimidating had they not been humming cheerfully.

"Tra la la…"

"Hello, River-Person!" cried Frisk, waving energetically. "I'm glad to find you here. Would you mind giving us a ride?"

"Of course," whispered the River-Person in their usual day-dreamingly distant manner. "I love to ride in my boat. Where shall we go today?

"Hotland, please!" said Frisk, hopping onto the boat and carefully placing Flowey down beside him.

"Then we're off…"

"Thanks, River-Person!" said Frisk, kicking his legs and looking out at the water, enjoying the feeling of the tiny droplets skimming his skin as the boat took off.

He heard Flowey moan something about seasickness and giggled as he patted his little companion on the head.

"We'll be home soon, Flowey," he said confidently.

"Tra la la," sung the River-Person, but their singsong voice suddenly became grim as they muttered, "Goodbye."

And before Frisk could even hope to ask what they meant by that, the River-Person leapt into the air and their boat flipped over, plunging Frisk and Flowey into the icy water.

* * *

Boy oh boy, I'm _Snowdin_ right now!

 **Bad-um, tssss!**

Seriously, though, we've got like three feet of snow up here. We shoveled for hours and now it's all covered up again! Unnnggh!

But whatever, you don't care about that (unless you're on the East Coast), you all came here to read! Thanks for doing that, and a special thanks to…

Sehcturc: Thanks a ton, and don't worry, I tend to obsess about completing stories, especially if it's a story people like!

The Vampire Avatar: Hey, I recognize you! You did an awesome Undertale story! I'm glad you like this, preferences aside! It's all up to interpretation, after all.

DarkFoxKit: Yup, that was a dream that knocked-out Flowey was having.

Peace: Who just came over from my FNAF fic. Thanks, Peace, glad to see you here!

Thanks to all of you guys for leaving reviews! They're very much appreciated! They warm my cold heart in these icy times!

Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed/faved/followed! Please review and I hope to be back soon!


	4. Chapter 4

A year ago, Frisk would have drowned. But Undyne had taken him to the beach over the summer and hadn't stopped dunking him under the salty water until he was able to swim like a future piece of sushi. He opened his eyes, the icy water stinging his corneas as he searched below the surface of the bitter water for Flowey.

He saw his little companion writhing about, sinking swiftly, and swam towards him. The flower was already beginning to turn blue. Soulless being though he was, even Flowey could drown.

But Frisk wasn't going to let that happen. He grabbed his roommate and swam to the surface, lifting Flowey above the water before even he allowed himself to take a precious gulp of air.

Both of them coughed. Frisk clumsily swam with one arm while keeping Flowey above the water with the other.

"You okay?" he panted, already beginning to become tired.

"Ok…ay…ok… _ay? Of course I'm not okay! That lousy son of a…daughter of a…that idiot nearly drowned us! In what universe would I just be okay after-?!"_

"All right, all right! I was looking for a short answer. Don't waste oxygen. Deep breath."

Flowey paused his tirade and obeyed, taking a big gulp of air as Frisk was forced to go back under the water. Frisk looked around for something he and Flowey could cling to and he was able to spot a large block of ice. Seeing no other option aside from drowning, he swam towards the block. He placed Flowey on the icy square first and then climbed on himself.

"W-well…" stuttered Frisk, getting situated in the center of the ice cube and gazing off at the disappearing dot that was the River Person and their boat. "N-not exactly as warm as the boat…but…this'll t-take us right to the Hotland."

"Slowly," Flowey pointed out, wringing out his leaves and trying his best to get rid of the superfluous water that had gotten into his pot.

"Better s-slowly than not at all…" Frisk muttered, hugging himself and shivering terribly. Flowey noted the boy's quivering and became moderately concerned. For all of his determination, Frisk was actually a rather fragile child. He wasn't as strong as the sentient flower and he was obviously freezing. Without a blanket, and given the fact that it would take a few hours to float all the way to Hotland on the ice cube…

Flowey grunted and lifted himself out of his pot, stretching out his vines, retracting the thorns on said vines, and wrapping the vines around Frisk. The child let out a tiny yelp of surprise before a smile came to his cold-nipped face as Flowey wrapped his entire body in vines, giving him a warm floral embrace.

"Thanks, Flowey," squeaked Frisk, snuggling into the vines while Flowey himself got situated on Frisk's head.

" _Humph!"_ humphed Flowey. "If you ever mention this to anybody, I will murder you. Slowly. Painfully."

"Love you, too!" sighed Frisk happily.

"Don't get any ideas, you little pervert; you've already flirted with every monster in the underground-including your family members, for that matter!"

"I wasn't gonna flirt with 'ya, Flowey! Not unless you want me to!"

"Eugh!"

"What noise was that?"

"My noise of 'You disgust me!'"

"What's disgusting? Flirting's just a way to show someone you really love them and wanna be best friends!" cried Frisk innocently. "That's how I became friends with Moldsmal and Napstablook and a whole buncha' other people! I love everyone, so I flirt with everyone! It's just plain logic!"

Flowey burst into a bout of condescending and moderately amused laughter.

"Oh, golly," he said. "When you finally become a teenager, I am going to have _no_ shortage of embarrassing stories to tell about you. Your reputation will be _decimated._ "

"Mom told me once that she wants me to RESET before I become a teenager so I'll stay cute forever…but Dad made her take that back."

"You're not even cute now, so no RESET will help."

"Aww, don't be mean, Flowey!"

"Well, I'm assuming that the River-Person was just overwhelmed by your ugliness and that's why they tried to murder us."

"You…really think that?"

"No, idiot, I'm being sarcastic."

"So why do you think they knocked us off, Flowey? They never did anything like that before. It can't be because you were with me, they took both me and you back to the Hotland when I came to get you last time…"

"Well, they always have been a few boats shy of a navy," said Flowey with a chuckle that was a tad nervous. That nagging feeling of wrongness was stronger than ever now. His stem felt like it was about to burst with trepidation.

Or maybe that was just Frisk cuddling up to him. He would have normally chastised the child for being so snuggly, but the kid needed to keep warm and so he decided to let it pass even as he felt tremendously awkward…but strangely enough, not entirely frustrated.

"Frisk, take a nap," he commanded. "You'll stay warmer that way."

"Like a hibernating bear!" declared Frisk.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Dad says bears hibernate for months on end! He says he wants to hibernate like that! We're both gonna get as much food as we can and then we're gonna find a little place in a basement and hibernate together for one whoooole winter!"

"Oh, will you stop prattling on about that pathetic excuse for a father and go to sleep!?"

He snapped out of frustration, but when the child fell totally silent, becoming as tense as a stretched string, his glare melted into a soft, curious frown.

"Ahhh…Frisk?"

"Flowey…" whispered Frisk, his normally bright and cheerful tone disturbingly melancholic. "Did I ever tell you how I ended up down here? Why I fell down?"

"I…" muttered Flowey clumsily "I had just assumed you climbed the mountain, found a hole and, being a world class idiot, dove right in."

"I was looking for a stick."

"A…stick?" repeated Flowey with disbelief, that feeling of uneasiness in his being becoming utterly overwhelming as he could practically sense the sorrow emanating off of the small child. "You climbed the mountain to get a _stick?"_

"I already had the stick…and it wasn't for me, it was for my foster-dad."

"Foster…?"

"I murdered my mother."

It was such a direct, cold statement. The same statement that Flowey had uttered to himself many times after many runs where he, in his morbid curiosity, had ended up slaying Toriel. But here it carried a certain weight, the weight of an act that could not be easily retracted.

"You…what? But…Frisk…"

"When I was a baby, while I was being born, I murdered her."

Flowey blinked. Oh. _Oh._

He laughed uneasily. "I… I've murdered alotta people alotta times, buddy, so trust me when I say that what happened to your mom, that wasn't your fault. That wasn't murder."

"It was, though," sniffled Frisk, barely subduing a sob as his little voice began to crack. "And…well, I guess he's not my _real_ father, but, you know, that one…he wasn't ready for the responsibility. So one day…the day before I turned three, he just took me to the park, sat me on a bench, promised he'd be right back…and he never came back."

Flowey shook his little head. Abandonment was unnaturally rare amongst the monsters. Parents adored their children no matter what, no matter how much of a burden they could be, no matter what they were, no matter if they had arms or legs or not.

No matter what, even if they were human. Even if they had been turned into a soulless plant that couldn't return their love no matter how much he tried…

But even he had _tried_ before simply running away, and he was the child in the equation. He could never imagine Asgore or Toriel or Sans abandoning their own (or even someone else's) just because they weren't _ready._

The floodgates of Frisk's past had been opened and he wasn't about to stop. Flowey felt his nonexistent soul sink like a heavy stone in water as Frisk continued:

"I got picked up by a police officer…she told me I was really lucky, but I never really felt lucky until I fell down here. I was in a place called a…I forget, it started with an 'O', it was hard to pronounce."

"'Orphanage,'" supplied Flowey.

"Yeah, I think that was it, but I wasn't there too often because they kept giving me to these people, they called them foster parents. I had a few nice ones, but I didn't get to stay there too long with them. I kept getting moved around and a lot of the foster people I went with really didn't like me that much."

"Then why did they take you in?"

"'Cause they got money every month for taking care of me, and as long as I didn't cost them too much they got to make a lot of money. So I had to wear hand-me-downs and I never got my hair cut. That was okay, though: I like my clothes and my hair. But…I got some _really_ bad ones, and a lot of the time they wanted me to do a lot of work, and if I didn't they'd…well, they'd hit me. And it hurt worse than friendliness pellets when they did that, Flowey. And they'd yell at me…and, well…"

He inhaled deeply. "The last person I was with lived right next to Mt. Ebott, and if I didn't keep everything clean he'd tell me to go outside and find him a big stick. Then I'd bring it back and he'd thwack me with it. Well, one time I messed up and…I'd messed up the bother day too and he hit me really hard, that's why I had that old bandage on. Anyway, I went out, got the stick, saw Mt. Ebott…and…I just couldn't go back there! I figured it'd be better to see what was up there and never come back. I thought maybe I'd meet someone up there that was nice, so I just ran and ran and…I fell. And I got everything I wanted. I got friends, a nice house, a great Mom, a great Dad…"

"So that's just the thing, Flowey. I don't need a dad who's all tough and royal and stuff…I jus' need someone who'll take a job to pay for my college…and who'll tell me jokes and make me laugh…and who'll dunk me into bed…and who'll help me prank call the kids at school who bully me. And who'll take me to the park and take me home right afterwards That's all, really, that's all."

Silence descended upon the pair. The only sound to be heard was the sloshing of the water. Flowey wasn't sure what to say. In another lifetime, he recalled Asriel having nothing to say when a certain little girl had told her own sad story.

He shook his head. That lifetime was gone. He was Flowey. This was Frisk. He couldn't just say nothing.

"Uh…Frisk…I'm…sorry…you had to go through that…" he stumbled. "You…a person like you really doesn't deserve that. You deserved a lot better."

"Flowey," said Frisk, peeking out from under Flowey's protective vines and smiling gently at his roommate. "It's okay, it really is. I'm happy now. I'm really, really happy. I've got friends and family and a Mom and a Dad and an Uncle and you…so don't feel too bad for me…and you don't have to stop making fun'a me if you don't want to, don't feel guilty about it! I consider it affectionate!"

Flowey chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about that, buddy, I'm _never_ gonna be completely and totally _nice_ to you. But, uh, I mean it, you do deserve better, and…well, if you're happy, that's good…"

He looked away awkwardly and he heard Frisk snicker.

"Flowey, Flowey, Flowey," sighed the boy, "You're such a Tsundre-Plane!"

Flowey's face heated up. "W-what? What the heck is _that_ supposed to mean!? Whatever, I don't even care, just go to sleep and don't freeze to death! We're gonna be floating for awhile now and I'd rather put up with your obnoxious snoring than your obnoxious singing!"

" _Ohhhhh…!"_

" _No…."_

" _Row, row, row, your ice, gently down the lake! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, then we'll take a break!"_

"Ugh, me and my big mouth…"

* * *

Well, that was depressing to write.

Please do NOT take Frisk's back-story as a slight to foster parents; there are plenty of wonderful foster parents out there. Unfortunately, however, there are plenty of gold diggers amongst them. Since foster parents get money from the government, some people who want extra cash will take in a foster kid and treat them more as a job or a source of income than a child. The show 'What Would You Do?" did a good episode on it if you want to look it up and get some hope in humanity back.

Also the thing with Frisk finding the stick for his abusive parent…believe it or not, that was based on my grandmother's childhood. The 20s were not a fun time to be a kid…

Well, now I'm upset. I'd better cheer myself up by thanking everyone who reviewed!

CryptologicMystic

Guest #1: I may have ol' Blooky in here, but I'm not sure.

Mkdeal13: Hope you didn't freeze!

DarkFoxKit

Guest #2

Sehcturc: Thanks! Although I would count myself as lucky to have snow if I hadn't strained my back trying to shovel away a pile of snow that was bigger than me. Eh, at least school is closed!

Peace

And lastly, I'd like to respond to a comment made by UndertaleGarbage (which probably hasn't shown up yet because it is a guest review) concerning Frisk's gender.

He/She/They say: _**I'm really trying so hard to enjoy this story, cos it has a good plot, but I honestly cringe every time Frisk is pronouned as "he"**_

 ** _Come on now, there's a reason everyone says "They" and "Them" and "Their"; they have no gender._**

To which I respond: Nope.

Toby Fox specifically made Frisk the way they are because both he/she and Chara were sort of supposed to represent the player: Frisk and Chara are whatever the player says they are, boy or girl or otherwise. THAT'S why Frisk and Chara are both referred to with gender-neutral pronouns in the game. They could be agender if you so choose, but that's not canon and it's not the only interpretation.

I'd also like to address the argument that "Frisk is referred to as 'they' by other characters in the game, so they must be agender'. Not at all. If we, the players, can't tell Frisk's gender at first glance then I think it's safe to assume that the monsters can't either, and it's more than likely common curtsey in the Underground to refer to someone by gender-neutral pronouns if you just can't tell or they don't specify what they are. (For example, if you go into Mettaton's house and call Undyne, she, not being able to remember the house's occupant, will refer to Mettaton as 'they', obviously not because Mettaton is agender but simply because she doesn't remember his name, much less his gender). The monsters are too polite to even ask Frisk's _name_ until the end of the game, so you can't really use their use of pronouns as absolute proof of Frisk's gender (or lack thereof).

Contrast that to Napstablook, who has lived in the Underground for years and is constantly referred to as 'they' by friends and family, including Mettaton, their cousin. They, I believe, are gender-neutral. Of course, just because that's my personal opinion doesn't mean I _cringe_ every time I hear them referred to as a 'he'. That would be a dumb thing to get upset over.

I'm sorry, but it drives me up a freaking wall when people have a freak out over Frisk's gender and act like you're a horrible person and/or just dumb and insensitive if you refer to Frisk as he or she. As Papyrus would say, "IT'S NOT WRONG! IT'S JUST MY HEADCANON!"

So that's that. If reading about a male Frisk is honestly so painful to you that it's ruining the story…well, maybe you should get off the internet for a little while.

But for all of you sticking around, thanks for reviewing, and thanks to everyone who read/faved/followed. Please review and I hope to see you soon!


	5. Chapter 5

" _I'll kill you!"_

 ** _Mercy_**

" _I'll kill everyone!"_

 ** _Mercy_**

" _I'll kill everyone you love!"_

…

…

…

 ** _Mercy_**

"…"

 _The child smiled._

" _Why?"_

 _The LOVE he had gained from killing Asgore weighed down heavily upon him as the child struck the_ _ **Mercy**_ _button once more._

" _Why are you being…so nice to me?"_

 ** _Mercy_**

" _I can't understand…" he whimpered, feeling the void within him even more poignantly now that the SOULS were gone and now that he could see the gentle red SOUL of the softly-smiling child glowing tenderly._

 ** _Mercy_**

 _"I can't understand…" he whimpered as the child took a step forward, smiling all the way, and placed a gentle hand upon his head. A single, small, fragile, forgiving, loving hand…_

" _I…just…can't…understand…"_

" _Flowey…"_

"FLOWEY!"

Flowey awoke with a start.

"Get in the pot, get in the pot!"

Flowey's eyes snapped open and it was a few seconds before he realized that he was still on the ice cube with Frisk, still wrapped around him like a suit of vine armor, and both he and the human child were about to fall off a waterfall of lava.

"WHOAH!" he yelped, jumping into his pot and curling into a ball. Frisk grabbed his little companion, inhaled deeply and, with as much determination as he could muster, leapt off of the ice cube and onto a nearby bridge.

He managed to land safely and rolled onto the warm-but-not-deadly land. He took a moment to catch his breath before he looked down at Flowey.

"You okay, Flowey?"

"Peachy," grumbled Flowey. "And I was having a great dream, too. I was remembering the time I almost killed you."

"Oh, ya' mean the time I beat you up?"

"You had help! Don't start bragging!"

Frisk giggled, stood up, and plopped the potted plant on his head, starting off towards Alphys' old lab, skipping all the way and yet managing to balance Flowey on his head.

As they drew close to Alphys' lab and the elevator that would take them ever closer to the Barrier, that feeling of wrongness rammed itself against Flowey's mind so harshly that he shivered. Frisk seemed to sense the uneasiness of his companion. He looked up, his eyes shimmering with concern.

"Flowey? Are you okay?"

"I…uh, Frisk, can you set up a SAVE point?"

The boy stopped at the crossroad that separated Alphys' lab from the road to the elevator.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Just in case…"

"In case of what?"

"Do you need to question everything?! In case I fall off your head and into the burning pits of lava!"

Frisk smiled sweetly. "Aw, Flowey, don't be afraid, I'd never let you fall! I'm a good balancer!"

"Humor me either way. At least if we get sidetracked or make a mistake we can just go back as long as you make a SAVE point here."

"Okay, okay, gimme a sec," said Frisk, grabbing Flowey's pot and gently placing him down on the ground. The child knelt down beside his companion and inhaled deeply, stretching out his hands and placing them on the ground, pooling all of his DETERMINATION into that one spot.

Nothing happened.

Frisk frowned. Flowey's uneasiness became panic.

"F-Frisk…"

"I've got it," the child insisted, squeezing his eyes shut and focusing as hard as he could on everything that filled him with determination. The feel of the warm air on his skin, the promise of hugs when he got home, the idea of relieving the stress that poor Flowey was feeling.

But no shimmering star of DETERMINATION was formed. Nothing. He couldn't SAVE.

"Frisk…" muttered Flowey. "You're…not determined enough."

"This…doesn't make any sense…" whispered Frisk. "Flowey, you try. You had the power before I did, maybe the machine did something weird and you have it now."

Flowey hadn't created a SAVE file in quite some time, but he had done it far too many times to forget how. He shut his eyes and focused, but he only managed to summon the smallest spark of DETERMINATION. No SAVE file was created.

"I don't have it," said Flowey. "Frisk…try to pull up the RESET button."

"What? No! I promised…"

"I didn't say hit it, I just said bring it up!"

Frisk hesitated: he always feared that even bringing that blasted button up could result in a RESET, but he obeyed and tried his best to summon it.

It didn't work.

He tried six more times. SAVE, pull up the RESET button, SAVE…SAVE…

Nothing. Flowey was right. The power of DETERMINATION just wasn't there.

"I don't understand…" whispered Frisk, suddenly feeling horribly exposed and horribly weak. Flowey's eyes narrowed.

"That's it," he snapped. "Something's wrong here. I don't know what that damn machine did, but I'm gonna go search ahead."

"I'll go too…"

"No!" snapped Flowey. "I'll move faster underground, and even faster if I don't have to worry about you!"

Frisk flinched.

"Don't give me that!" sighed Flowey. "Look, here's what I need you to do: go to the MTT Resort and _stay_ there. Wait for me. If I don't find anything weird, we'll head to the Barrier together. If I'm not back in half an hour, go on a bit ahead and _be careful._ "

"I won't leave you!" Frisk cried, grabbing Flowey's pot and hugging him protectively. Flowey felt an odd pang in the pit of his stem.

"You idiot…" he muttered. "Look, just do it. I'm just gonna look around and see if I find anything suspicious. Just go to the resort, okay? Splash around in the fountain or something. C'mon, I'll be fine."

He offered the child a smile and a wink. The boy, who had begun to tear up, smiled in return.

"O-okay…but promise that if you find something dangerous you'll come right to the resort! We can flee together, but I'm not gonna leave the Underground unless you're with me!"

"Just like before…" mumbled Flowey. "All right, plant me."

Frisk obeyed, gently lifting the flower out of his pot and placing him on the warm ground Flowey paused a moment to revel in the warm, nutrient-rich soil of the Hotland (he had always been fond of the volcanic soil) before he offered Frisk the most genuine smile he was able to muster.

"I'll be back," he promised. "Don't die while I'm gone."

Frisk saluted. "Sir, yes, sir!"

Flowey disappeared beneath the soil. Frisk balanced Frisk's empty pot on his head and inhaled deeply.

"Well," he sighed, "Off I go!"

He marched right to the elevator, resisted the urge to explore a tad, and hit the button that would take him right to the MTT resort.

He reached the hotel rather swiftly (possibly because he didn't have to worry about gold-hungry spiders or singing drag-clad robots this time around). The hotel was totally empty. The fountain was off, random suitcases were here and there, a few empty gel-pens (likely cast aside by Bratty and Catty) were scrambled across the dirty carpet, and the MTT Burger-Shop had its metal window down. A sign was on the metal window:

 _ **CLOSED FOREVER :)**_

 _Oh, Burgerpants,_ thought Frisk with a sad shake of his head. _Don't you know? You can never escape Uncle Ton-Ton!_

He glanced to his other side and smiled fondly when he saw the normal restaurant, where Sans had taken him to dinner once.

He's gonna be so mad when he figures out I went in the shed…well, maybe. He doesn't really get mad easily. He only gets scary when he's messin' with me…I think I'm more worried about Mom! She'll probably blame Flowey, though. Poor Flowey…

Speaking of Flowey, the sentient plant was taking a little while.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Frisk was getting bored.

He missed home.

He missed Flowey.

He missed his ability to SAVE.

 _Think, Frisk,_ he commanded himself. _What's one place where you could get a ton of DETERMINATION? Wait…I've got it! Maybe I can go to the place where I ended up after the Asriel fight, when I woke up and everyone was there …_

He could think of no other place that would fill him with more DETERMINATION. Of course, going there would involve disobeying Flowey, but it was for a good cause and he felt fairly certain that nothing would be around to hurt him on his way there. Flowey would be mad for a little while and then forget about it, and if there was even a small chance of him getting his full power back then it was worth the miniscule risk.

He placed Flowey's pot on the ground beside the fountain and skittered out of the resort, to the elevator, and used it to get to where he had fought Mettaton initially. The area was, as expected, devoid of life, but Frisk was surprised to see some scraps of metal lying here and there.

 _Weird,_ he thought. _Must be from Mettaton's arms and legs when I fought him. I'm surprised Alphys just left 'em there, she's usually so careful…_

He passed by the broken bits and continued to the other elevator, straight to Asgore's abode.

He arrived at the small house, which looked so identical to Toriel's old abode that it made Frisk smile nostalgically. He entered, glancing about the familiar entrance hall and noting the locked chain.

 _Huh,_ he thought. _Maybe Asgore re-locked it before we all left for good?_

He decided not to bother with the keys and simply slipped under the chain.

That was when he heard a voice:

"Howdy, Chara! You finally made it home!"

 _Flowey?_ Frisk thought, turning just in time to see a small yellow flower disappear between the cracks in the hardwood floor.

"Remember when we used to play here? Hee hee hee! Boy! Today's gonna be just as fun!"

He didn't sound angry at all. He sounded downright giddy, like this was the best day of his existence, and…

 _Did he just call me Chara?_

"Flowey…" muttered Frisk slowly, continuing down into the basement and keeping an eye out for the sentient flower. "Flowey, are you…okay?"

Flowey popped up right in front of him, grinning devilishly.

"Okay?" he laughed. "Of course I'm okay! You've done great so far, Chara! Your LOVE must be through the roof by now! You always were a hard-worker, Chara…although I guess I deserve quite a bit'a credit for helping you out with those annoying puzzles! Hee hee hee!"

"F-Flowey," said Frisk, approaching the flower slowly, with a gentle yet confused smile on his face. "Flowey, I really don't know what you're talking about. Chara is…not here anymore, remember? It's me, Frisk, your friend…"

Flowey chuckled. "Aw, Chara, I'm not as gullible as I was when I was…when I…"

But he gazed at the sweetly smiling child, the child whose SOUL was glowing tenderly, whose SOUL, he noted as he looked closely, was not weighed down by any sort of murderous sin. The child had no LOVE. The child was weak. The child wasn't Chara.

"You…you…what…then…where…?"

"Flowey, did you hit your head or something?" queried Frisk, getting down on his knees and stretching out his hand towards the sentient flower. "Here, let me see…"

"Don't… _don't touch me, you little imposter!"_ snapped Flowey, disappearing beneath the ground.

"Flowey!"

The flower didn't pop back up.

" _Flowey!"_

Frisk ran ahead, looking for a sign of the flower, checking every crevice and listening closely for the sound of his squeaky voice.

Nothing.

He stumbled into the church area and blinked as the poor lighting of the room made seeing and, more importantly, searching all the more difficult. What had happened to Flowey? Was he losing his mind? Maybe he'd sampled some Temmie Flakes while he had been looking around. Frisk recalled waking up in the Nice Cream's Man's punch-card box with a parasol on his head and nine hundred Dog Residues piled on his chest after _he_ had tried those flakes, so he didn't doubt that they might have muddled Flowey's mind assuming he took them out of desperation after losing some HP.

Frisk wasn't given much time to ponder Flowey's mental condition, however, as a shadowy figure suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway. Frisk froze, suddenly keenly aware of how vulnerable he was without a SAVE to back him up.

But the shadowy figure spoke and Frisk's fear became relief.

"hey…"

Frisk smiled as the figure stepped into the light. It was Sans. _He must have gotten my phone call._

The child opened his mouth to properly greet his dad, but as he approached he noticed that Sans' eyes were stern. There was no spark of cheer and jocularity. Although his white pupils were still there, and although he was still grinning that eternal grin of his, Frisk could tell that he was far from happy.

Frisk smiled sheepishly.

"Hehe," he giggled. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

Sans laughed in a manner that sent shivers down Frisk's spine.

"kid," he said, "you have _no_ idea."

The blue-clad skeleton's left eye glowed cyan and he raised his hand. Frisk couldn't help but giggle as his SOUL began to tickle. He looked down and saw a blue heart glowing on his chest.

"it's a beautiful day outside…"

He lifted the child into the air.

"birds are singing…flowers are blooming…"

Frisk smiled as the familiar feeling of being lifted by his SOUL caused him to relax. They would have to go back and find Flowey, but at least he was safe now.

"On days like these…kids like you…"

Frisk's smile died on the spot when Sans' pupils disappeared entirely, becoming vacant, pitiless pools of darkness.

"SHOULD BE BURNING IN HELL."

* * *

Holy freaking hell, guys, you are awesome! 34! 34 reviews! And over fifty favs and follows! Wowie! Wowza! Wowareeno! Thank you all so much!

A special, special thanks to:

DescendingSnow: Whom I neglected to thank last time I was thanking reviewers! Sorry, your review didn't show up in my email box for some reason! Double thanks, DescendingSnow!

FlamingFlyingFoxOfDoom*: Haha! That's what happens when you read FF at school! Coulda' been worse: could have been math class (that happened to me once…ugh…)

Talkingbirdguy (x2) Thanks for the confetti!

DarkFoxKit

Peace: I'm updating this story faster than I usually do for my longer FFs because it's gonna be a LOT shorter than my other stories and since you all seem to love it a lot (as your awesome reviews seem to show), I wanna get as much done as possible. Plus if I get this story done fast I won't have THREE unfinished long stories dangling off my authorial belt.

AllergyRelief (x2)

Banananana123 (hope I spelled that right…)

Just 2 Dream of You (x3)*: Maybe…what would FloweyxFrisk be called? Friskey?

Kiryma*

Dragon*: Interesting interpretation. So everyone's play-through would be like its own universe. That actually makes a ton of sense.

That 'Inactive'Afiction: WWYD is great. Highly recommended!

The infamous fly

Luigifan7

Thanks to all of you for reviewing! If I left a number beside your name, that indicates the number of reviews you left and indicates the number of hugs I gave you. If I put a little * next to your name, that is to indicate that you commented on my little Frisk-gender explanation from the last AN by responding in a calm and rational manner even if your headcanon was different from mine. Thanks, guys! And thanks to everyone who read/faved/followed!

So…here we are. Frisk is about to have a bad time.

Please review…


	6. Chapter 6

It didn't make sense.

Flowey popped up between some cracks in a stage no doubt set up by Mettaton during his star-crossed-romance phase. He had looked almost everywhere and had found neither hide nor hair of any sort of monster. He hadn't bothered to go all the way back into Waterfall and try as he might to get back into the True Lab Alphys had, unfortunately, done a rather good job of making that place flower-proof. He was about ready to call it quits and head back to meet up with Frisk.

He looked back, however, and saw a huge lair made of spider-webs. He groaned. Muffet's old home. He hated that place more than he could describe. Not so much because of the spiders (though in previous timelines they had always crawled all over him and tickled his roots and _ugh_ , he hated that), but more because he always, always managed to get his roots stuck whenever he went in. He couldn't even go underground like usual or else he risked getting stuck between the earth and the webs for hours, and neither he nor Frisk had a RESET button to get them out of such a sticky situation.

Sticky situ…

Sticky…

Ugh…he really needed to wean Frisk away from puns; they were starting to subconsciously rub off on him.

 _If only that comedian could have stuck to puns instead of dappling in weirdo science experiments. What did that machine do to Frisk? The only way he could lose his power of SAVE and RESET would be if there was someone with even more DETERMINATION than him. He took it from me before, but if he lost it, who has it?_

He was about to go underground and head back to the MTT resort when he heard something: a sound from inside Muffet's lair.

 _What?_ he thought, raising a curious floral eyebrow. Unless Frisk had gone out of his way to disobey him…

Flowey huffed and pulled himself out of the ground, flinching slightly as the sizzling ground of the Hotland stung his more delicate roots. He ignored the throbbing, however, and crawled into Muffet's lair.

 _Don't stop or you'll get stuck,_ he reminded himself, feeling the sticky webs and shuddering when he imagined being trapped there for…

He stopped. Something was obstructing his path.

Squished spiders. Hundreds upon hundreds of squished spiders.

Spiders were an oddity amongst the monsters. Aside from Muffet herself, they by and large didn't turn into dust when they died.

They also should have been on the surface, helping Muffet run her bakery.

And speaking of Muffet, in the center of the spiders, where she would have been sitting before, there was a single little flower.

 _Oh no…_

A memory flashed through his mind: giggling cheerfully as he murdered Muffet and watching without even the ability to feel guilt as one of her little spider companions left a little flower to mourn her.

 _Oh, no, no, no…is this one of my old runs?_

He heard that sound again and looked to the left. He expected to see another version of himself cheerfully crushing the bugs. What he didn't expect to see was a small child in a striped shirt, giggling with glee and killing the scattering spiders one by one.

"F-Frisk?" muttered Flowey in disbelief. He glared. "Frisk! What in the hell do you think…you're…"

The child turned. It was Frisk's face, Frisk's body, but the second he saw the child's face, the slightly sinister smile and the twinkle of blood red in their eyes, he knew that this wasn't Frisk.

But that spark in their eyes, the way they smiled, their posture…

" _Ch-Chara?!"_

Six hundred different memories from another lifetime struck him at once. A little girl groaning as Asriel helped her to her feet, a little girl eagerly picking flowers one moment and easily wrestling Asriel to the ground the next, a little girl who had once loved monsters more than her own kind.

He sensed that little girl, and when he saw that that little girl's stolen body was covered in dust he could hardly believe it.

Chara smiled at him, and seeing such a pitiless smile on Frisk's normally gentle face was unnerving.

"Hello, Asriel," she cooed, casually stepping on the already deceased spiders as she approached him, leaving a small trail of spider-guts in her wake. "You're here awful early, arent'cha? Did you already handle the puzzles up ahead? You did, didn't you?"

She casually wrung the toy knife she was carrying, gazing down at him and frowning.

"Is something wrong, Asriel?"

"Chara…you shouldn't…be…here…and…why are you…doing…this?" he stuttered, gesturing to the corpses of the spiders.

"Oh, right, I know, don't be a nag. I just came back to finish off some of these insects and gain some extra EXP. Don't know why, but I got this feeling that I'm gonna need it all before I go into the next area. These bugs only give like half an EXP, but every little bit counts. I even found some gold under all of these webs. Not that I need it, but you know, numbers need to go up."

"That's not…Chara, why did you take over Frisk's body?"

"Frisk? Who's that? Ooooh, you mean the little brat. Well, he's been totally silent since I killed that stupid skeleton back in Snowdin, so don't worry…"

She grinned. "I'm the only one that's here."

"Killed…you mean, Papyrus?"

"That might have been his name. He was so forgettable, though. Ha! Did you see him, Asriel? 'Oh, I believe in you! You can do better!' Dead! Ha! What an idiot!"

Flowey could only stare in horrified silence for a moment. Chara frowned at the shell-shocked flower.

"Asriel," she hissed. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts. You don't seem as…empty inside as when I last saw you.

"Chara…I…I'm not Asriel, I'm Flowey. And you…do you have the RESET button?"

Chara's already deep frown somehow became deeper.

"Of course I do, what about it? After all the work I've done I seriously hope you're not gonna suggest I RESET. If I did, the kid would have probably learned his lesson and I'd never be able to get back. Do you want me to be dead again?"

"Chara, no, that's not…I'm just…it's good you're alive…it's just that…how you're alive isn't good."

"What's that supposed to…?"

" _Chara!"_

Flowey blinked as his own voice interrupted the dust-covered child. Chara turned and stepped to the side, revealing the speaker.

Flowey…another Flowey. A Flowey that looked up at Chara with relief.

Flowey Number 2 carefully crawled over the spider-webs and towards Chara, who looked rather confused but nonetheless stooped down to pick him up. She examined her Flowey closely and once she had confirmed that this was the empty Flowey she knew, she turned to Frisk's Flowey with a withering gaze.

Flowey Number 2 didn't notice his doppelganger for a moment. He just smiled cheerfully.

"Boy!" he sighed. "You really worried me there, Chara! This little imposter was trouncing around Asgore's house. Thought the SOUL you stole might have rebelled."

"I'm fine," Chara said. Flowey Number 2 opened his mouth to express his relief once more, but his eyes traveled to where Chara was looking and he saw his other self.

There was utter silence for a few seconds before Flowey Number 2 mumbled, "Uhhh…howdy, handsome."

Flowey, unsure of what else to do, awkwardly waved at his other self. Chara laughed wickedly and placed her Flowey on her shoulder. Flowey Number 2 wrapped his vines around her so that he wouldn't fall over, still staring at his other self.

"Well…" muttered Flowey Number Two, "This is…the weirdest day ever."

Chara laughed. "Weird? Asriel, this is fascinating! We have guests, don't you get it? Guests from another time!"

Flowey Number 2 grinned devilishly. "Oooh, then that imposter was the human you took over! Golly, and they're really weak too!"

"Uh huh…" said Chara, a bloodthirsty twinkle lighting up her stolen eyes. "Say, Asriel, can you imagine how much EXP I'd get for _killing_ another human?"

Flowey's eyes widened with horror.

"Chara…" he started to say, but he was cut off as his doppelganger giggled.

"Hee hee hee! That's a wonderful idea, Chara! But we'd better hurry! That little idiot bumbled right into the church, and if that comedian decides not to check the brat's stats he might just beat ya' to that EXP."

"F-Frisk!" cried Flowey, remembering enough of his fights against a pissed-off Sans to know that the fragile child wouldn't stand a chance.

"Right," said Chara, casually stepping over Flowey and strolling out of Muffet's lair. Flowey attempted to grab her, attempted to block the path, attempted to move at all, but he had been stationary for far too long and his roots were stuck in the sticky spider webs. He couldn't move.

"Chara!" he cried, " _Chara!_ Chara, come on, don't do this! _Chara!_ You're not…not…"

"Not what?" queried Chara, glancing over her shoulder. "A monster? No, I'm not. And as of now I'm not really human either. I'm just…nothing. Just like you."

She winked at him and sauntered out with her Flowey cheerfully giggling all the way.

Flowey used every curse word he had managed to pick up over the years and tried to free his roots.

 _Frisk, damn it,_ he thought helplessly. _Don't be dead, don't die, you little idiot!_

He strained and pulled, but it was no use. He couldn't get free. The tips of his roots were stuck.

The tips…

He grinded his teeth together and groaned.

"Oh…this is gonna hurt…"

* * *

Chara arrives at last! I know you guys wanted me to get to the Sans fight so you could figure out what happened to Frisk…but, well…

 _**SINCE WHEN WERE YOU IN CHARGE?**_

Sorry, couldn't help it!

Thanks a ton to my reviewers, including…

Dragonking 123

Storytosee

Ice Bear

Kayla is purple

Reader99

Lolduude: Well, ya' didn't have to wait long! It feels good to have time to write!

TigerLilyBulb

Peace

AllergyRelief

The infamous fly

Ngrey651

DescendingSnow: Well, here's your answer, he got stuck ; ) And don't worry, I'm not too much of a romantic person. Despite my little joke with Just 2 Dream Of You, I actually don't see Flowey and Frisk's relationship as romantic. I see it more as a sibling relationship, like with Asriel and Chara except with more huffiness on Flowey's part.

As I said, I don't care what you see Frisk as. No matter what, Frisk is just a great character.

I see Frisk as a boy who doesn't much care about gender roles (hence why he doesn't hesitate to wear a tutu or ballerina shoes but will also wear a manly bandana just as eagerly) and Chara as a girl who doesn't care much about gender roles (hence why she'll pick flowers one moment and wrestle Asriel the next…when she's not murdering the world, that is.) Just my POV.

That 'Inactive' Afiction

SernaJ

DarkFoxKit

Talkingbirdguy: Remember, monsters (with the possible exception of Sans) don't bleed when they die: they turn into dust. Piles of dust easily swept away by a stray gust of wind, never to be discovered…

Creepy, eh?

Banananana123: Had to go look that up. Sort of, but not really. Underswap is very good, though! Highly recommended.

Litosns: Okay, okay!

EpicCesar: hoI!

Deadly8rose123

 _D3aCt1vAt3D_ : I see you!

 _CharlieDragonRiderDemigodFlame_ : Hoo! Uhm…got a nickname?

Thanks for reviewing and thanks to everyone who read/faved/followed!

Also…52 freaking reviews! I'm gonna go throw a happiness party! Wooohooo!

Next chapter…get dunked on.


	7. Chapter 7

There was no time to explain. No time to speak. No time to even cry out.

With a swing of his arm, Sans slammed little Frisk onto the roof. The boy yelped in pain and his pain only grew worse when several white weapon bones, not unlike the ones Papyrus had previously used against him, popped out, each knocking one point off of Frisk's HP.

Frisk, however, bounced and managed to get back down to the floor, bouncing again as weapon bones shot out of the ground, barely dodging the attack. He looked up and his eyes widened when he saw that his FIGHT panel, compete with his useless ITEMS bar, his ACT panel and his beloved MERCY option, was in front of him. His red soul was still glowing even after Sans' attack was done. That hadn't just been a one-off attack: Sans was engaging him in an all-out FIGHT.

Sans had _never_ engaged him in a FIGHT before. Ever. Not even as a joke. He was adamant that FIGHTs were not funny. Besides, he would always insist, he was far too lazy to ever engage in a true FIGHT. That was why Frisk hadn't gotten scared when Sans' eyes had gone blank so long ago, when he had insisted that Frisk would have been dead where he stood if it hadn't been for the skeleton's promise to Toriel. The child just hadn't been able to imagine that Sans would ever lay a hand on him.

Frisk glanced at his HP bar and cringed when he saw he was five points down. He didn't have anything to get that health back.

He reached towards the MERCY button, but before he could even hope to get near it a bone struck him on the back of the head

 ** _Frisk HP: 14/20_**

"ah ah," said Sans with a wag of his boney finger, "no more second chances. you've gotten enough'a those."

"I don't- _ **unnnngh!"**_

Bones struck him one by one. He acted swiftly, letting his soul float out of his body. That was how Frisk usually fought: letting his soul out of his chest allowed him to dodge attacks more easily. He would only lose HP if any of Sans' attacked touched his little soul, and his little soul was easier to maneuver if it wasn't attached to his cumbersome body.

"there we go," sneered Sans hatefully, examining the soul. He was surprised, however, when he saw that the soul was unburdened with sin. A cursory glance at the child's HP revealed that their name was Frisk and their LOVE was low.

Sans blinked in confusion, but his glower returned swiftly. _Another dirty trick,_ he thought¸ _kid musta lost a couple of times before this and now they're trying something sneaky…just like they did with pap…_

The thought of his brother sent a flash of pain through Sans' entire being. Poor Papyrus, so eager for a friend, any kind of friend, had easily fallen for the child's smile and their promise to be a great companion.

 _Oooh, you really must be great! A great royal guard who deserves a lot of friends! I'll be your friend~!_

 _R-REALLY? WELL, I SUPPOSE THE GREAT PAPYRUS COULD USE A MORE DIVERSE SET OF FRIENDS, SO…YES, HUMAN! LET'S BE FRIENDS!_

 _Excellent. I'll be a great friend, Papyrus…_

Empty words, words that had only made Papyrus an easy target when the human had grown bored of him and decided to strike…

Frisk spotted the sorrow in Sans' eyes and lowered his defenses. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but before he could Sans' left eye glowed fiercely.

"you're not foolin' me, you _**dirty brother killer!**_ "

"Bro- ** _ungh_**!"

A stream of bones shot at Frisk's soul. The child's red heart was struck several times.

 ** _Frisk HP: 10/20_**

 _ **Frisk HP: 9:20**_

 _ **Frisk HP: 5/20**_

And although the bones weren't directly striking Frisk's body, the injuries his soul was sustaining became visible on his corporeal form. Bruises appeared on his face and blood leaked from several cuts that appeared on his body. His lip became split and pain shot through his tiny body with every bone that brushed against his soul.

"Ah…hurts…" muttered the child, his knees becoming weak. Sans perpetual smile became wider.

"good," he spat. "now 'ya know how all those monsters felt…aw, who am i kiddin? we've done this a billion times, haven't we?"

"St-stop…"

"too late for that, ya' little demon," Sans replied, snapping his fingers. Frisk was barely able to look up. Horror gripped his heart when he saw what Sans had summoned: two demonic-looking machines with wide maws. A glance at his FIGHT panel informed him that they were called 'Gaster-Blasters'.

"Ah…" Frisk reached towards his panel and Sans braced himself for a swing from the child.

He was shocked when Frisk pressed MERCY.

He gawked at the fallen child for a moment, trying to make sense of this move.

"what…are you…? is this some kinda _joke?"_

He felt tears sting his eyes.

"ya' think this is _funny?"_

He struck at the child's soul. Frisk yelped in pain.

 ** _Frisk HP: 3/20_**

"you think i'm an idiot that's just gonna give 'ya a big hug and let you go after you _killed everyone?!"_

Another bone flew at Frisk's soul, but the child waved his hand and his soul dodged the projectile.

" _not on your life!"_

A string of what must have been a hundred bones flew at Frisk's soul. Frisk couldn't hope to dodge all of them.

 ** _Frisk HP: 2/20_**

 _ **Frisk HP 1/20**_

He felt his soul begin to split.

 _Can't…keep going…_ he thought, but a small wave of determination struck him and he somehow managed to hold out even as Sans continued to beat at his soul. He imagined how his mom would cry if he didn't come home, how his uncle would have no-one to make puzzles for anymore, how Flowey would be all alone again, how his dad would react when he snapped out of this murderous rampage and realized what he had done.

 ** _Frisk HP: .5/20_**

 _ **Frisk HP: .01/20**_

 _ **Frisk HP .001/20**_

 _ **Frisk HP: .00001/20**_

Sans snarled in frustration, throwing one last bone at the child's soul, which missed as the soul began to sink. The little red heart fell back into Frisk's chest. The child fell down on his face, barely able to stay conscious.

"whoah…" Sans panted, getting tired. "you…eh…really are determined, aren't 'ya?"

The Gaster Blasters opened their mouths wide.

"but i've had enough'a this…see ya' soon, you little _monster."_

He snapped his fingers and the Gaster Blasters aimed.

Frisk managed to lift up his hand, his bloodied fingers twitching as he reached towards the smiling skeleton with the glowing blue eye. Sans braced himself, prepared for the child to strike the FIGHT button out of spite before the Gaster Blasters eradicated him.

A single, choked word managed to emerge from the child's lips.

"D-dad…"

Sans' left eye ceased to glow cyan almost immediately.

" _w-wait!"_ he cried, but it was too late. The Gaster Blasters fired at Frisk.

* * *

Hey! Have I mentioned yet that I'm evil? No? Well, I am! Chara's got nothin' on this cliffhanger!

Nevertheless, I extend my sincerest thanks to:

Talkingbirdguy

D3aCt1vAt3D: Staaare._.

TehUnoman: nope

Ice Bear

Guest: Interesting, though I don't think he could leak determination like that. If he leaked it…wouldn't he melt?

That 'Inactive Afiction': That's where they put Grandpa, obviously!….wow, that's kinda dark…

DarkFoxKit: Past, technically, since at this point pacifist Frisk and Flowey have been living the happy-ending life for a little over a year.

Ngrey651

Peace: -_- is not dead…yet

Banananana123

Lvl-ZeR0: Sicko! Ha I'm kidding, I'm the real sicko here, I'm writing about a small child getting beaten up by his own father…after he was previously abused by a foster parent…

Wow, I _am_ a sicko…

Litosns

DJKitten07: The child has been dunked!

Unknown (Guest)

Just 2 Dream of You

Deadly8rose123

Charlie: I can see! Thanks : )

Lolduude: No problemo, I sometimes do the same. Now can we all please stop talking about Frisk's gender or lack thereof? I've spent so much energy writing about it that I'm considering re-titling this fic 'The Gender". And that title would just raise eyebrows.

Cyberfire22: Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoy my writing!

Thanks to everyone for reviewing! Thanks to everyone who faved/followed or read, and please review this chapter…that might make me update faster.

Maybe…

Y'know…unless I decide to be evil.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Ha…

I have issues…


	8. Chapter 8

**_Flowey HP: 2/30_**

Sans had expected that the child would be vaporized. He hadn't expected that a wall of vines would shoot up, shielding the youth from the blast that would have easily taken out the miniscule amount of health he had left.

He also hadn't expected that that wall would shrink into a tiny buttercup. And he _certainly_ hadn't expected that the buttercup would groan.

"Ow…ugh…haven't…gotten hit by one of those in a while."

"Flowey…" muttered Frisk, his weak voice somehow managing to summon concern in spite of the fact that his ability to talk was beginning to wane.

"Hey…Frisk…didn't I tell you not to die?" panted the little monster, Flowey, glancing at the child with a smile.

Flowey's stem wobbled. He felt burns all over his floral body. His leaves had become bent and his petals crooked, but nonetheless his focus was entirely on the injured child. Frisk's health was abysmal, but he was alive, and that was enough to make Flowey sigh in relief.

The sentient flower turned towards Sans, whose Gaster Blasters were still hovering behind him even as the skeleton began to shake not with rage, but with astonishment.

" _Back off!_ " snapped Flowey, managing to smile devilishly and producing a rather intimidating aura even though he knew full well that he wouldn't be able to handle another full-on blast.

He wasn't going to move, though. No way.

He summoned seven 'friendliness pellets' and had them hover over his head. The bullets spun and spun, clearly gathering up some momentum before they lashed out at Sans. Sans stiffened: effective dodger though he was, there was a significant risk that one of those bullets would strike him. And it would only take one hit to reduce him to dust.

Frisk knew that far too well.

"F-Flowey…don't….you'll kill him…"

"If I don't, he'll kill you…"

"Flowey…"

Sans took advantage of their little argument and glanced briefly at his own FIGHT panel, which he hadn't been consulting during the course of he and Frisk's one-sided battle. Flowey had indeed officially joined the fray, as his name was displayed in white right under Frisk's.

And Frisk's name was yellow.

Sans checked Frisk

 ** _Frisk_**

 _ **ATK: 1**_

 _ **DEF: 1**_

 _ **Very Merciful.**_

He checked Flowey.

 ** _Flowey_**

 ** _ATK: 30_**

 ** _DEF: 20_**

 _ **Cripplingly Tsundre. Will not let you hurt the human.**_

As he exited his CHECK screen, a message appeared.

 _ **Frisk is sparing you. Flowey is watching your actions cautiously.**_

"Flowey, please…he's not wrong…"

"What?"

But Frisk was already beginning to lose consciousness.

"Frisk!" yelped Flowey, and the alarm in the little monster's voice caused Sans to cringe.

"kid…?"

Flowey turned back towards Sans with a venomous glare, but after a few tense seconds his friendliness pellets faded away. Sans looked down at his FIGHT panel.

 _ **Flowey is sparing you on Frisk's behalf.**_

Sans glanced hesitantly between his two options. His eyes flickered towards the FIGHT option.

Flowey froze.

 ** _Mercy._**

 _ **Spare.**_

The panels disappeared and Sans collapsed to his knees, tears escaping his eye-sockets.

"i…can't understand…" he muttered.

"Then we'll piece it together later! He's hurt!" snapped Flowey, turning his attention away from Sans and unto the injured, barely-breathing human. His eyes softened.

"Damn it, Frisk…" he muttered, looking helplessly at the boy's wounds, not daring to touch them lest he accidentally poison the child. "You never listen when it matters."

Sans stood and slowly walked over to the child, hesitating to get too close lest the obviously suspicious flower lash out at him. He observed his handiwork and clenched his bony hands so tightly that they almost fell apart. In his righteous rage it had been easy to forget the supposedly murderous child's age, but seeing the broken little kid, the kid who couldn't have been older than eight…the kid that had called him 'dad' and that had smiled so cheerfully when he had lifted him into the air.

 _Damn it,_ he thought. He hadn't been thinking. He hadn't even considered checking. He had just been so _angry_ …

 _So now you're a kid-killer. Or you will be, Sans, if ya' don't get this kid somewhere safe ASAP._

"gimme the kid…" said Sans, and almost immediately another wall of vines shot up around Frisk, separating the child from the skeleton as Flowey gave Sans an absolutely murderous look.

"i'm not gonna hurt 'em…not anymore…c'mon, we've gotta get the human…frisk…we've gotta get 'em somewhere safe. he needs to get his hp back up."

Flowey glanced hesitantly at the child, who had passed out. His breathing was labored. He was totally helpless. An easy target.

He thought of the approaching Chara and shivered.

"Fine," he snapped, lowering his vines and allowing the skeleton to scoop the child into his arms. Flowey clung to Sans' arm and crawled onto his shoulder.

"But if you hurt him, comedian, I will rain down bullets on you."

"that…don't worry. i'm not gonna hurt him…not anymore…."

"We have to get as far away from here as possible as fast as possible. Do your thing, Sans!" commanded Flowey

"ah…what?"

"Don't play dumb! Your teleporting thing! Take us back to Snowdin! There should be food and medicine there, and it's far enough away that Char…the one that really killed your brother…she won't be able to get to us, or at least it'll take her forever to get all the way back there."

"how'd you know i could teleport?" asked Sans, his eyes narrowing. "are you…?"

" _Later!"_ snapped Flowey urgently, gesturing to Frisk.

"right!" cried Sans. "hold still, this is gonna make 'ya dizzy."

Flowey had experienced enough teleports, both benign and malevolent in nature, to know what he meant by that. Sans gripped the child closely and Flowey held on for dear life as, with a flash of black and a swell of energy and momentum, Sans dragged them through a rift in time itself. It felt like being on a roller coaster going down: if Flowey had possessed a stomach, it would have been lurching as they arrived in Snowdin.

Flowey took a moment to recover from the vertigo and hopped off of Sans' shoulder. They were in the Inn, which was pristine and cozy as always even though it was also devoid of the sound of snoring folk. Flowey grunted uncomfortably as he crawled across the wooden floor towards the bed, where Sans carefully laid Frisk.

"i'm gonna get 'im something to eat and some bandages…stuff to get his hp up…" muttered Sans, teleporting away without even waiting for Flowey's response. Flowey pulled himself onto the bed and sat beside Frisk's face, which was scrunched up as the child whimpered in his sleep.

"Nightmare…" muttered the sentient flower bitterly. He couldn't blame the kid. He would have tucked him in, but he was afraid to touch the child at all while he remained susceptible to infection.

"…forgot…" he heard the child mutter.

 _Forgot what?_ thought Flowey, but at that moment Sans returned with a _shoom!_ His arms were laden with cinna-bunnies and bandages and his eyes were wide with worry, as though he had feared that the child would perish in the short time it took him to gather the necessary healing items.

It was truly amazing, Flowey thought, how much speed Sans had in him when he was motivated. He managed to bandage up all of Frisk's wounds in record time. Flowey checked the child's HP once he was done.

 ** _Frisk HP: 1/20_**

Well, at least he wasn't about to shatter. Still, that was certainly not a comfortable level. Flowey prodded at the child and Frisk flinched.

"kid…frisk, eat this," Sans said with a gentle and rather awkward smile, pressing the cinna-bunny close to Frisk's mouth. The child was still hovering between consciousness and unconsciousness, but he managed to obey and finished up the treat before slipping into sleep once more.

"how's his hp?"

Flowey checked.

 ** _Frisk HP: 2/20_**

"Oh, golly…" hissed Flowey. Normally a cinna-bunny would have been enough to get Frisk back up to at least half strength, but without his power food could only do so much. Most monsters didn't bother with food or other healing items because they only granted them an insignificant amount of HP when devoured, but it had always been different for Frisk when he had possessed the power of DETERMINATION.

 _But I guess Chara has that now._

Sans handed Flowey a cinna-bunny.

"you should eat somethin' too," he said. "my gaster blaster must'a hurt you a lot."

"Don't remind me," grumbled Flowey, pushing the treat away. "Save them for Frisk."

"you…uh…sure? there are a lot back in the shop next door. at least eat one."

"Not hungry."

Sans set the cinna-bunny down on the nightstand. "neither am i…for once. i feel kinda sick, actually. i'm also confused."

"You and me both, buddy," snorted Flowey. Sans leaned against a nearby wall and exhaled.

"so…" said the skeleton. "who talks first?"

* * *

Guys, this fic just hit a milestone. 107 reviews and over a hundred follows. It's now one of the most reviewed Undertale fics on this site, and that's all thanks to you guys.

Really, when I posted this fic I would have never _dreamed_ it would get this many people excited and have gathered this many reviews and favs in such a short amount of time. I'm really honored. Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this fic. You really make the finger-cramps worth it!

A very special thank you to:

Talkingbirdguy: If that's true, could you be my new editor? You must have literally the best eyes ever.

Emerald and Lazulite

Luigifan7

D3aCt1vAt3D: 4 the Evulz

DJKitten07: But Oreos are delicious! Cream or cookie?

DaBoomer57

Shadowsora53

Just 2 Dream of You: Do I detect a hint of sarcasm from you, J2DOY? : )

DarkFoxKit: All shall be explained!

Shadefeather682: _**The Amazing Anigirl didn't know what you said, but was flattered anyway.**_

Lvl-ZeR0:...

Spongebob reference FTW.

Guest #1: Thanks!

AllergyRelief: Channeling George Carlin.

Deadly8rose123

That 'Inactive' Afiction

Banananana123: This entire battle is basically taking place within the first couple of Sans' moves, up until the Gaster Blasters show up for the first time. It's just extended for dramatic effect. As for the poison part, litosns pretty much summed up my headcanon: the poison, in my opinion, is predicated on the EXP and LV of its target. Hence why it's never used until the tail end of the Genocide Route, when your LV and EXP is through the roof. You know how in the battle with Sans it always says 'you felt your sins crawling up your back'? Well, when you get to that point you can be affected by the Karmedic Retribution poison, but the poison's effect is dependant on your Karma. Frisk, therefore, still had his invincibility frames instead of the poison.

That being said, I _did_ soften and slow down Sans' attacks a tad for the sake of the story. It was either that or filicide…or friskicide.

Oh, BTW, a tip for anyone insane enough to go up against Sans: _Don't use the knife._ Really, it's totally useless because your damage doesn't matter. The real knife is a worthless weapon. Instead use the Burnt Pan: that will give you Plus 4 HP on your healing items.

ItsMeYourBestFriend: Good! I lost way too much money to the snail races! They deserve to be pie! They cheated me outta grad skool!

Ice Bear: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

Wolfnymph1

Litosns

Guest #2: Please don't strangle me…

Peace: Chara will be back…

KimranReech (whenever you get this far): Thank you very much, that means a lot.

Kayla Is Purple: Thanks! No, I actually don't have a Wattpad: between writing my own original fiction, school, family, and this site, I barely have time to bathe, much less get on another site! I prefer anyway.

Guest #3: Because I love you!….in my own sick little way.

The infamous fly: Correct. That's essentially what Chara is: a player that needs to have it all no matter what.

InternalNightmare: Well, today's your lucky day!

Really, seriously, thanks guys! Thanks so much for reviewing and reading and faving and following! You make me smile and you make me update!

Please review once more! We've still got more story to go!


	9. Chapter 9

"Uhhh…Chara, shouldn't we be…you know…hurrying to kill the human?"

Chara's Flowey glanced longingly over at the door while his old friend rifled through Burgerpants' abandoned shop. The smiling, dust covered child was comparing various foods and healing items, trying to deduce which would grant her the most HP in one shot.

"I need to have the best healing items," she said brusquely. "You said Sans was going to be tough, right?"

"Yeah…" muttered Flowey-2, glancing uneasily at a nearby plant (that one damn plant always seemed to _judge_ him whenever he went down this path, and this time it had its metaphorical withering gaze on both him and his friend.)

He looked back at Chara and almost rolled his eyes. His sister/best friend had been behaving downright obsessively since she had been brought back from the dead. She _had_ to have the best items, the most LV, the highest EXP, more GOLD than she could ever spend. Not for any particular reason (other than, he assumed, her needing it all to beat Asgore and break down the Barrier, but even that goal seemed to be secondary compared to her quest for the highest numbers.) No, she simply wanted it all because…because…

Actually, he wasn't sure. Maybe it was simply curiosity on her part. The desire to know what would happen if she beat everyone and became strong.

But he didn't mind that. That was only natural. He knew that desire too well. A wicked smile came to his face at the thought of how many times he had tried this. Of course, every time _he_ had done so alone he had always managed to either get killed by Sans so many times that he RESET out of pure frustration or, on the very rare occasions that he managed to get past the skeleton (all one of them), Asgore would either crush him or would die rather than tell him where the human souls were.

He never told anybody where he hid those damn souls.

But maybe he would tell Chara, who, even in her stolen body, looked so much like her old self that surely, with a bit of begging, he would take them both to the human souls.

And then…they would be free. Two free gods ready to take over the world together.

He giggled at the thought.

Chara managed to finish stuffing her pockets with only the best healing items and started off towards the Church at a brisk pace.

"Plan?" asked Flowey-2 as they started to draw close to the location that Sans tended to frequent for his confrontations.

"He only has one HP, right?"

"Right."

"He won't be expecting you. Go for the heart while I've got him distracted. Tag team, like we used to with Dad when we were playing war."

She offered him her hand for a high-five and Flowey-2 snickered at the familiar motion. Still same ol' Chara, genocidal tendencies aside. It was a bit odd to give her a high-five when he didn't have five fingers anymore. Just a leaf.

He sighed. That would change once they got the souls.

They arrived at their old house and Chara, for one reason or another unwilling to break the rules, skittered to find the keys to the chain. She curiously went into their room.

Flowey-2 tended to avoid that room.

"Hee hee…this room…" he giggled weakly as Chara nearly tripped over two boxes on the ground. She smiled eagerly and knelt down, tearing the first open.

"About time…" she muttered as she pulled out a real knife. She took a moment to compare the dagger to her current weapon, a burnt pan, and discarded the pan in favor of the weapon that offered more damage.

The second box was opened.

" _Chara! Look what Mom bought us!"_

" _Jewelry? Oooh, fancy!"_

" _It's a locket! I have one too, so we'll match!"_

"' _Best Friends Forever'" she read aloud, looking at the silver writing on the locket before opening it to reveal a picture of her and Asriel at Christmastime, dressed in their warmest and fuzziest clothes, both smiling joyously._

 _She put it on._

" _I'll never take mine off," she promised._

"I…never found mine…" muttered Flowey-2, gazing at the slightly dusty locket.

Chara opened it up. She had changed the picture about a year before she and her brother had put their little ill-fated plan into effect. Inside the locket there was a picture that Asgore had taken by pure luck, a picture that Toriel had gushed was their most perfect best-friends picture simply because it was so natural.

It was a picture of her mid-way through tackling a giggling Asriel, the most carefree smile in the world lighting up her face as she wrapped her skinny arms around her best friend.

Flowey-2 felt a strange pang in the center of his stem as she slipped the locket around her neck and quietly proclaimed, "Right where it belongs."

Flowey-2 felt like crying even as Chara exited their room and swiftly found the other key. Odd. He so rarely felt anything even resembling an emotion anymore, but then again Chara was special. Even when his own parents couldn't make him feel a thing, she could bring out the tiniest spark of emotion. Even if he couldn't love her like he used to as long as he was without a soul, he still recognized that she was his best friend. Even if everyone else was gone, he was confident that he and Chara would be just fine so long as they stuck together like always.

Best friends forever, after all.

Chara stopped to SAVE right as they got to the Church, planted him, and told him to go underground so that he could take Sans by surprise from the back.

"I've got you," he said with a wink before disappearing under the ground. She inhaled deeply and held her hands over the floor once he vanished.

 ** _DETERMINATION_**

A star-like ball of pure DETERMINATION manifested under her fingers, hovering slightly above the ground, a sinister scarlet tinge granting it an aura of malevolence that made the child grin.

She held her knife at the ready and entered the church.

She was rather surprised to find it empty save for Flowey, who looked rather confused.

"You're my Asriel, right?" she called to him. He nodded, disappearing beneath the ground and popping back up at her feet. She picked him up and set him back on her shoulder, stepping forward cautiously and waiting for the comedian to suddenly teleport in.

But nobody came.

"Huh…" muttered Flowey-2 as Chara started on forward. "He's usually right here. You think the brat beat him?"

Chara's crimson-tinted eyes traveled to the ground and landed upon a scarlet stain. She got down on one knee and dabbed at the red liquid with the tip of her finger. Blood. _Human_ blood. The same blood that was currently flowing through the veins of the body she had stolen.

"Something certainly happened here," she said. "Either Sans lost and we'll have to deal with a more powerful human or he won and…well, guess I'll just have to get back that lost EXP when we beat him."

Flowey-2 giggled. "Then let's go on ahead and see what we find! And if it's Asgore…well, we might as well handle him and then go back to handle Sans…or the human, whichever is left."

"Right," said Chara. "C'mon, partner. Let's go greet Daddy."

* * *

"is this it?"

Flowey, uncomfortably situated on Sans' skull, squinted as florescent lights came to life with a clap of Sans' hands. Sans' shed became bright and the Machine that was the cause of he and Frisk's misery was revealed.

"That's it," Flowey confirmed, hopping off of the skeleton's cranium and landing with a pained grunt on the cold ground. "So what exactly _is_ it?"

"y'know all those old time machine movies?"

"Yeah, you…uh…well, the you Frisk is used to…you watch them all the time."

"heh…yeah…this me does too…well, this is basically like that. except it doesn't just go back in time, it travels to other timelines. i was gonna use it to…i dunno…"

"Stop me?" Flowey queried. "When I was messing with the timelines. Back in my time, Frisk took my power and promised to never RESET. I guess that's why this thing had a sheet over it in my time. So it sent us to an alternate history…"

Sans shook his head. "that's not how it works, pal. this ain't some sorta' weirdo alternate-dimension machine or whatever…it only sends ya' to a timeline that's already happened."

"But that's impossible," said Flowey, cautiously prodding at the Machine with one of his roots. "Frisk never killed anybody."

"he mighta on a past run and ya' don't remember it…"

"Hee hee…I remember all the RESETS and RELOADS. Everything, even if I can't do it myself anymore. Besides, Frisk's…not the murderous type. You don't know him."

"no…no, i guess i don't…"

Sans stepped, or, rather, stumbled to the side, heaving a weary sigh and placing his fingers between his eyes, sending a soothing stream of magic into his befuddled and aching brain.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Flowey. "C'mon, you moron, we need you to stay strong right now. You're our big guns."

"'m fine…it's just…that kid…he called me 'dad'."

Flowey swallowed nervously. "Yeah…"

"why…why did he do that?"

Flowey laughed softly. "In another time, I guess…you earned it."

"…did i? heh….never thought i was really a 'dad' type. i mean…i did bring up pap…did a good job, too, judging by how he turned out…but…"

"I always said that too, that you weren't…well, I said you weren't smart enough to be a dad."

"smart! the brain's not the problem, pal, it's the fact that i'm too lazy to take care'a myself, much less…."

" _But_ …you're not a bad dad. Not in my time, at least. You actually worked really hard to make Frisk happy. You're a better dad than I am a friend…or a son…or a brother…or an…anything, really…"

Flowey drooped, thinking back to all of the times he had brutally slaughtered Toriel, Asgore…Frisk…laughing while his vines crushed the child's soul over and over, feeling nothing when the boy cried in pain as fire scorched his little red heart.

 _Parents shouldn't hurt their children, children shouldn't hurt their parents…and Frisk shouldn't be hurt by anyone ever._

Flowey felt a skeletal hand lingering close to his petals, preparing to give him a pat of pity, and he glared up at Sans. One thing that separated Frisk from the rest was that he never gave Flowey _pity._ Concern, of course. Love, plenty. But never _pity._ Flowey hated _pity_ more than almost anything.

Sans retracted his hand, gazing awkwardly down at the sentient flower before muttering, "hey…flowey…don't beat yourself up. whatever 'ya did before, you're not the bad guy around here right now."

Flowey laughed bitterly at that. "Tell that to your counterpart."

"i…he hasn't let up on ya'? weird. i'm not usually the type to hold a grudge. i tend ta' believe in second chances…i just have my limits. the other kid…chara…she's past my limit."

Sans felt a sting in his soul. Poor Papyrus had picked up his tendency towards forgiveness and that had been his downfall.

"so…in your time…everyone's alive? everyone's happy?"

"Everyone. Frisk…really made it all happen."

He saw tears emerge from Sans' eyes.

"Sans…?"

"sorry…it's just…frisk…"

He inhaled deeply and explained. "a few days before chara came here…i had this dream. you've gotta understand, flowey, i never have good dreams…"

"Join the club, buddy."

"yeah, well, this one was…best i've had in a long time. we were at a party or something. everyone, and i mean _everyone_ was there. pap and asgore and mettaton…alphys and undyne were makin' googly eyes at each other. and i'm there…and in this dream it's like nothin' can go wrong, like i don't have a care in the world…it was like heaven. and there was this kid who looked…well, it was frisk. and this kid in this dream just runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug…calls me a bone-head…calls me 'daddy'…"

He looked ruefully down at his left hand, the hand he had used to slam Frisk against a wall. "so when chara came…i thought this dream might come true…and it turned into a nightmare instead. but i guess it came true…in another time…"

"Don't get gloomy," Flowey ordered. "That's not gonna help. If you can get this machine to take me and Frisk back to our…"

" _ **no!"**_

Before the sentient flower could even hope to slip inside the Machine, Sans grabbed him by the stem and teleported back into the inn room where Frisk was fitfully snoozing. Flowey took a moment to shake the dizzy stars out of his eyes before glaring up at Sans.

"what the heck was _that_ for?" snapped Flowey.

"listen here," said Sans, so deadly serious that his left eye started twinkling with a hint of blue. "you have no idea how lucky you two were to end up here the first time you went in that thing…"

"You call _this_ lucky?!" cried Flowey, gesturing towards injured Frisk.

"comparatively speaking, yeah," said Sans. "you managed to cling to the .0001% chance that thing gives 'ya of ending up somewhere _whole._ "

"That's…bad odds."

"like i said, you're unnaturally lucky."

"So…what would probably happen to us if we tried it again?"

"unless lightening-luck strikes twice, you and frisk'll both end up splattered across time an' space like a bug on a windshield. sound like fun?"

"No…"

"then we're not touching that thing…"

Flowey grunted. "Well, what are we supposed to do, then? Sit around and wait for Chara to come and kill us?"

"that kid wants to get over 20 lv. she wants to do that, she'll need to kill me. asgore's a tough guy, but he won't give her enough exp t'break that threshold. i'm the one she wants, so she won't try anything brash until she gets t'me."

"'Brash'?"

"ya' don't know what happens to a human with that much exp, do ya?"

"N-no. I…in my runs…I only ever got to 20, never over that."

"that's the point. it's not easy to do for a good reason. that chara girl…that princess…she's like a virus now. she'll take everything she can and once there's nothing else to do…she'll crash the computer. only in this case, the _computer_ is the world."

"And she can absorb human souls…" muttered Flowey. "Because she's not human anymore…or a monster…just like me…"

"and all that plus the reload and save ability…it's just too much for something that evil…"

Chara…evil…

" _Chara…please…wait!"_

 _The yellow flower was dangerously close to Chara's lips._

" _Wait…" Asriel whimpered. "Don't…please…I…I don't want you to die…"_

 _Chara just smiled confidently. "I don't wanna die either, Asriel. I wanted to die when I fell down, but I'm glad I didn't. If I had, I would have died for nothing. But now…Asriel, remember those stories? That angel…that's me. I'm the only hope for the Underground. We both are. We can free everyone."_

 _She looked down at the golden flower._

" _Please…" sobbed Asriel. "I know it's for good…but…I don't want to see you die, Chara. I love you…"_

" _I love you too, Asriel. I love everyone down here. More than anything…"_

 _And without another word, she devoured the poisonous flower._

Chara…evil. Even in spite of everything he had seen, he couldn't reconcile the image he had of Chara with that of a soulless fiend. He accepted that he had been evil back when he had been screwing with the timelines himself, but Chara…the Chara who had been so willing to die in order to free a species she didn't even belong to…

 _I just can't understand…Chara…how could you do all this?_

"Sans…you never met Chara, did you?" he asked. He, as Asriel, didn't remember ever encountering the skeleton, and since Asriel and Chara had been inseparable…well, it was safe to assume that the skeleton had never met the princess.

"nope. heard about her, but i was a bit…busy at the time."

"Well…then you wouldn't understand."

"understand what?"

"Nothing…"

Sans' eyes began to flux blue. "she killed my brother, flowey. i've seen enough to _understand_ that whatever she is now, she's not worth sparing."

Flowey looked over at Frisk. _Not worth sparing…_

"Hee hee…" he giggled sadly. "Golly, Sans…Frisk would have your head if he heard you say that."

* * *

WHEEEEEEEEEEEE! 130 REVIEWS!

Oh, me, oh, my! I'm so happy! You are all wonderful! I can't thank you all for the support you've given! This story shall continue forth, and as I write the next chapter, I would like to extend a sincere thank-you to:

Litosns

D3aCt1vAt3D: Staaaaaaare…also, thank you!

AllergyRelief

Emerald and Lazulite: Thank you! ~devours cake in one bite~

Ihascake12345: That pun sure was _humerous._ I daresay it was sans-sational!

Just 2 Dream of You (aka J2DOY): Are you okay with me calling you that? Also, thanks! Dare I ask what your favorite chapters have been so far?

ElectricSnowman: Thanks!

Banananana123: Thanks for the critique! I understand where you're coming from, but I somewhat disagree. I think Flowey would drop the tsundre-façade when Frisk is close to death. When he's only injured or in trouble, certainly, he's not gonna be a little angel, but when Frisk is literally clinging to life by sheer determination he's gonna tread with care. At least that's my headcanon.

Talkingbirdguy: Cntrl-F informs me that there is no 'AH'. You got me! I hope the pain in my eyes serves as a form of retribution for you! I understand that! Good luck with college-planning! And thank you for your kind words!

Genie of the Fourth Wall

DJKitten07: I'm more of a cookie person myself, but only if I have a tall glass of milk!

A Happy Reader (Guest): Your very signature makes me smile and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

DarkFoxKit: That we'll get to in the next chapter…

Afiction: Yup! If you filter the fics by 'Reviews' and leave out 'M' rated fics it's on the front page, and with M's it's on the second! Thanks to you all!

ItsMeYourBestFriend

Lvl-ZeR0:…

I shall continue to write for both of our sakes….

TheDemandingOne

Peace: Thanks, Peace! Means a lot!

The infamous fly

Guest #1

cybermage99

Rosie Vulpes: You are correct. That was my bad, but since I REALLY didn't feel like experiencing the 'fun' that is Chara's lovely face coming right at me again, I didn't double-check. My bad. At least it was just the AN. Also, thanks!

Sightshadis: Thank you! That means a lot!

Thanks to everyone for reviewing and thanks to everyone who faved/followed, or just took the time to read. Also, special thanks to AbyssalDaemon for adding this fic to their archive, _The Daemon's Archive,_ thus making this the first of my fics to ever be featured in any FF archive. Thanks for that!

And, as you leave your awesome reviews, I have a question: what are your favorite tracks in the Undertale soundtrack?

Mine would be:

1\. Finale

2\. His Theme/Memory

3\. Megalovania

4\. Last Goodbye

5\. Death by Glamor

Honorable mentions would be Dummy/Napstablook's Them, Spider Dance, So Sorry's Theme (Wrong Enemy!), and the Temmie Village Theme.

Let me know what yours are! Thanks again for reading! I'll be back ASASP!

Oh, BTW, today is my birthday! Reward me by leaving reviews! Reviews will be my B-day present!


	10. Chapter 10

It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming…on days like these, King Asgore liked to sit beneath the little hole in the mountain, breathing deeply and imagining that he was on the surface, plucking flowers for his wife while his two precious children played nearby. When he got lost in those daydreams he could sometimes hear their lovely laughs, their sweet giggles. He could hear Asriel grunt as Chara pinned him down yet again and he could hear Chara brag that she was the strongest ever before helping her brother to his feet.

But the dream would end one way or another. He would open his eyes and discover with an ache in his soul that he was alone.

He glanced woefully over at his lonely throne, the throne that should have had another one beside it…the throne that he should have been sitting in with a child on each knee, hugging them both while his wife looked on with a smile.

At least he had his beautiful gold-colored flowers to keep him company and make the place seem more…alive and bright. Chara had loved to romp about in the garden, hunting bugs and picking flowers. Sometimes she would tie the flowers into a crown for him to wear. Then she would make one for herself and one for Asriel and they would all have matching flower-crowns. Once she had even made a flower lasso and played cowboy (with poor Asriel playing the part of her noble steed.) He smiled at the memory even as sadness pinched his soul.

Taking care of the gentle plants was almost his way of paying homage to his not-always-so-gentle daughter. He watered a few of the late-bloomers. He hadn't gone inside all day; he had been so focused on the garden. Hadn't listened to his messaging machine or attended to his kingly duties. He sighed. He had a lot of work to do, but he had been gripped by such a bout of melancholy that he just couldn't get to it right now. He needed some peace, some time to think.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sound. Someone had come in. Probably Undyne, he thought, to nag him about answering his phone. She always worried about him.

He turned and was rather surprised to see a small child, a little monster with red-tinted eyes. A small flower was perched on their shoulder, a flower that smiled.

"Howdy!" Asgore said as graciously as he could. The child stepped into the sunlight, squinting slightly as the bright beams struck their corneas, and the flower, being a plant, smiled and tilted its roots up towards the solar light.

"Is there something I can…?"

Asgore paused as, in the light, he realized something: the child looked quite a bit like Chara. Same hair length and color, tendency towards striped shirts, same age range, same height.

He swallowed nervously. "Ah…I am sorry, child…but what kind of monster are you? Sorry, I cannot tell…"

The child laughed and…that laugh…so familiar. It was the same sort of laugh Chara had used to give after 'defeating' Asgore in a 'fight'. When he had lain down, pretending to be beaten, and she had laughed in triumphant glee.

The child spoke.

"Aww…Daddy….don't tell me you've already forgotten me!"

Chara's voice.

Asgore was silent for a moment before he got down on his knees, examining the child carefully. There was an aura of…something wrong surrounding the child, something he couldn't pin down. It wasn't the aura of a human, nor was it really the aura of a monster. He couldn't even define it.

But at that moment, he didn't care. She could have been in the body of a Moldsmal for all he cared. What mattered was that it was her voice. What mattered was the fact that he had, after so many years, finally been called 'Daddy' again.

"C-Chara…" he stuttered, smiling a wobbling smile, "My…my little princess…is that really you?"

Chara smiled and nodded. "King Dad…aren't you happy to see me?"

Asgore broke down, yanking Chara into an embrace and weeping with joy.

He didn't see the devilish grins lighting up the faces of Chara and her floral friend.

* * *

"Okay…so…we can't use the Machine, Chara's still hunting us down, if she kills you and Asgore she might destroy the world, and Frisk is still critically injured and couldn't do much even if he was at full health. Wonderful. What are we supposed to do?"

Sans, who had been in the process of feeding Frisk another cinnamon-bunny (the child was now up to a miniscule 3 HP), set the child's head down. Flowey, still sitting next to Frisk's head, watched as Sans tapped the side of his skull thrice, a nervous habit he usually only employed when under intellectual stress (Flowey recalled that in past timelines, when he and Sans had been friends, Sans had done that quite often when they had played chess. Smart as Sans could be, board games were not his forte).

"i have an idea," said Sans. "not sure if it'll work or not, but it's our only hope."

"Spit it out!" ordered Flowey.

"reset,' said Sans simply, and Flowey tilted his head to the side.

"RESET?" he repeated. "What about it?"

"so, when a reset happens, everything goes back to where it was initially, where it's _supposed_ to be. if we can reset, maybe that would send you and frisk back to where you're supposed to be…back to your own time."

"Yeah, or we could all just end up at the beginning."

"it's a shot in the dark, but it's our best bet. better we start all over than let chara win."

"Fine, but we have a problem: we can't RESET. Only Chara can, and she made it pretty clear back in Muffet's lair that she's not gonna be doing that anytime soon."

"then it's back to square one."

"Square one?"

"my plan from before: kill chara over and over 'till she gets frustrated and quits. she's impatient, i can tell. determined, sure, but impatient."

Oh, Flowey knew that too well. As much as Asriel has adored Chara, even he had realized that she had the patience of a starving squirrel. If a movie or book had failed to grip her for more than three minutes she would declare it to be boring, grab Asriel's hand and amble away with her brother in tow while Asgore would chuckle and Toriel would lovingly chastise her for…

"uh…are you okay?"

Flowey realized he had been smiling nostalgically, drifting off into a pleasant daydream. He shook his head and his eyes became steely once more.

"That's actually not a bad idea," said Flowey. "But…uh…she has a me with her."

"a…you?"

"Well, this place's version of me."

"oh…two against one, eh?"

"You're tough, but even you might have a problem. Even you can get tired of you're getting hit from both sides."

"i'm tired right now…" sighed Sans honestly, and indeed his white pupils lacked their usual lackadaisical glow. Instead they were dull with fatigue.

Flowey thought for a moment, trying to come up with something that might give the skeleton an advantage. He could go along, which would even the odds somewhat, but even if he and Asgore both joined the fray they might still have difficulty against the LV-19 child and the relatively tough Flowey-2 (Flowey, after all, was no hapless plant and he assumed his doppelganger had as much strength as him. Possibly more if he had managed to accumulate some LOVE of his own).

Plus he didn't want to leave Frisk. Not because Chara would become invincible if she killed the child (Chara didn't know it, but Flowey had learned while on the surface that humans, unlike monsters, gave very little EXP to their murderers, so Frisk probably would prove disappointing if Chara's goal was to get over LV 20). No, Flowey just didn't want the boy to be all alone. There _would_ be a risk if Chara, being, like him, neither human nor monster, managed to absorb the boy's soul…

His soul…

 _Soul._

"Souls!" yelped the sentient flower. Sans narrowed his eyes down at the plant.

"huh?"

"I know where the human souls are!" he cried. "I found out on our run! Chara won't know and neither will the other me…so if you can warp in and absorb the souls…hehehe…well, if you were trouble for me before, you'd be the ultimate Boss with the souls!"

Sans' eye briefly flared blue and he asked, "Where are they?"

"Right near the Barrier, under the ground in a bunch'a canisters. Go! Fast! Absorb them and…and…"

 _Kill Chara._

He couldn't say that.

"Just…make her stop…"

"you've got it, bud. and…"

He looked down at the slumbering Frisk, whose wounds were healing steadily, and his gaze softened slightly.

"look after 'im…okay? just in case. i…i'll do my best to make her reset all this and bring you back…and then i'll never hurt 'im again…or let anyone else hurt 'im."

"Just like you promised…" sighed Flowey with the smallest of smiles. Sans nodded, looking down at Flowey. Even though Sans was always smiling, Flowey could sense that if the skeleton had the ability to do anything else with his maw, he would still be smiling at the flower.

"smell ya' later, flowey," he said with a wink. Flowey moaned.

"Was that a joke? Because I'm a flower? You're really running outta material."

"hey, i'm under pressure! i'll be more _punny_ later!"

And before Flowey could scold him for that, he disappeared.

A few minutes went by, a few silent moments, before Frisk moaned and rolled over. His eyes fluttered open forlornly.

"Ngh…F-Flowey…?"

Flowey leaned over the child, relieved to see him awake, alive, free of amnesia, and smiling.

"Hey, stupid," Flowey said with a small, broken giggle. "You look even more horrible than ya' usually do…"

Frisk giggled, but then coughed violently, as if the mere act of laughter was detrimental to his health. Flowey cringed and, using his vines, patted the child on the back.

"Easy," he said. "After all the HP I lost on your behalf, you'd better not just go and die on me. I know you're a sick little masochist, but…"

"Masochist? Uhm…what's that?"

"It's what you are. I'll give ya' a definition later. How are you feeling?"

"Grateful."

"Grateful? To what, your dumb luck?"

"To you…Flowey…you saved me…"

The child reached out and placed a tender little hand on top of Flowey's head. The flower froze up for a few seconds before offering the child the gentlest smile he had probably ever offered him.

"Hehehe…like I said earlier, Frisk…nobody tries to murder you but me."

* * *

Hey guys, what rhymes with a blundred-nifty? If you guessed a hundred fifty…well, yeah, that was kinda obvious.

At any rate A HUNDRED AND FREAKING FIFTY REVIEWS! CHEER! YELL! WAKE THE NEIGHBORS! WHOOOO!

Okay, I'm calm now.

Seriously, guys, I know I've been saying this every chapter, but I'm just bemused by how much love this fic is getting and how many reviews, faves and follows it's accrued. I'm honored, and I'd like to thank…

That 'Inactive' Afiction: As of now, I believe it's on the first page with 'M's. Whee! Also, great choices! Asgore does indeed have a great boss theme.

SernaJ: Polish. I study WWII History, so I can recognize it : ). Thanks! Also, that's an unnaturally long way to wish someone a happy b-day. Try writing _that_ on a normal sized-cake!

Secret (Guest): Indeed, they are all great! Also, thanks for the b-day Bonetrousle!

AllergyRelief: Huzzah, a fellow lover of 'Finale'!

Cybermage99

Guest #1

InternalNightmare

Kayla Is Purple: Thanks! No wattpad, unfortunately. Not enough time to maintain another site!

D3aCt1vAt3D: But you're so pretty…staaaare…

DarkFoxKit: Chara's one of the most fascinating characters to me. I'm definitely gonna be exploring more about her and her motivations in later chapters.

Guest #2

Banananana123: Most of your questions are gonna be answered in later chapters, but for now:

"What changed that made flowey not get to lv 20? Normally you get it after BRUTALLY killing Sans"

I think you might have misunderstood: Flowey _did_ get to LV 20, he just never got OVER it. To have the world-erasing powers, in my headcanon, you need to get over LV 20, but that's darn near impossible for most genocidal maniacs (otherwise everyone would do it).

Remember, at the end of Chara's run she kills both Asgore _and Flowey._ But when Flowey killed Asgore, he never found the souls and he didn't have anyone else to kill that could have boosted him above LV 20 (in my headcanon, Asgore, despite being strong, isn't worth a ton of EXP while Flowey is). Chara did, which is why this is such an issue. Plus it could be presumed that after killing Asgore and Flowey she could either steal their souls and escape the Underground using her stolen human soul, thus going up and killing all humanity, or have hunted down Alphys and the monsters who fled from her.

Sorry if that was unclear from the last chapter!

Stevenuniversefanficislife: Wow. Thank you so much. I'm so happy you're enjoying this that much, and…well, I'm not happy I made you procrastinate, but I am happy you loved my story enough to give it priority over other things! I'm really honored that you would consider this fic to be one of the best in the archive! Thanks so much, I really appreciated your review!

Guest #3: Okay okay! Yeesh, what is your obsession with strangling? I'm getting enough threats from Lvl-ZeR0, I don't need more!

Oh, speaking of which…

Lvl-ZeR0: I…I'll have violence in the next chapter! I promise! Lot's of violence and angst! I…I would never betray you…I can write…I can…

(Simpering Asriel voice) Please don't kill me…

Oh, and also, see everyone? Lvl-ZeR0 took my advice! Burnt Pan every time! The knife is worthless except in the battle against Asgore in the pacifist and neutral runs! Spread the gospel of no-knife to the farthest corners of the fandom!

Ice Bear

Spy of Influence: *Thanking my new follower fills me with more DETERMINATION!

J2DOY: Thanks!

Peace: Yuuup…

Wolfnymph1

LightShadow27: Yeah, that was my mistake. It just felt like a church when I first entered it (and I'm Jewish, so that's saying something!)

ShmokeyDaBear: Can I just say that your profile name made me smile like an idiot? :)

theduffman999: Thanks!

Talkingbirdguy: I hope the victory was satisfying considering the fact that it caused me to _waste precious writing time_! For shame! Nah, just kidding! Happy belated birthday, btw! How's government-mandated adulthood feel?

Spyrkle10

Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, faved, and followed!

Next chapter…

*Megalovania begins to play…


	11. The Amazing Anigirl Blabs

**_An update concerning updates:_**

Hey ladies and gents and everyone in between! Before you all have a heart attack or try to murder me (I'm looking at you, Lvl-ZeR0!), let me assure you that this story is continuing forth. I just wanted to give you all a heads up about the next week or so.

So, if you're wondering why I'm being tardy, two reasons: First, midterms. Those should speak for themselves. Second, the very little free time I've been allowed has been used to play Undertale. I'm testing out a theory that I had which, as far as I've seen, hasn't been tested yet. I'll tell you all about it in the next AN and if there are significant changes, I'll give them to you (I'm recording it, so I'll be able to give you word-for-word dialogue in case it changes).

As for the next update: I don't wanna rush myself too much (since a rushed chapter is a mediocre chapter, and I definitely don't want Omega Sans to be mediocre!), so it might be next Sunday or slightly after. My last midterm ends Thursday and I'm almost done with my experimental run, so I should have some writing time after that!

Sorry for the delay, guys, you've all been awesome! I hope you'll bear with me for this!

I hate midterms. I love Undertale. And I love all of you!

Warm regards and be back soon!

The Amazing Anigirl


	12. The Amazing Anigirl Blabs (Again)

**_An Update Concerning The Amazing Anigirl's Experimental Run (an also on updates)._**

Hello again, awesome readers! So yet another update/non-update. First, concerning the next chapter: I think I'm gonna split it into two smaller chapters, so you might (sadly) not get Omega Sans for another chapter. This isn't a definite, I'm still plotting out how the next couple of chapters are gonna go, this is just a possibility.

My midterms are mostly done, but I've had a crap ton of essays due and so…well, yeah, my fingers are having a bad time, thus writing a super long, epic chapter is a bit problematic at the moment. Sorry about all of this, guys, but I'm sure you all know how it is.

I did, however, finish my experimental run, and I wanted to tell you all how that went!

So, as I'm sure you all know, the first ending you're gonna get if you play Undertale (unless you go Genocide) is gonna have the Neutral End, where Flowey pops in and you fight him.

Something I've noticed about Flowey, however, is that Flowey does NOT, at any point in either the Pacifist or Neutral rounds, mistake Frisk for Chara. He never refers to Frisk as Chara, never references old times, and indeed if you play the end of the Neutral rout many times he will comment that he doesn't want Frisk as a friend, stating that Chara is the only one he could care for. Even when taunting Frisk near the end of the Pacifist Route, Flowey doesn't make any references to his former life as Asriel or Asriel's desire to keep 'Chara' around.

UNLESS you Genocide your way past the Ruins. After _that_ point Flowey will acknowledge you as Chara, even if you abort the Genocide route later.

Remember: Flowey will only fight you once, on your first run. After every other route, Chara or no, he won't fight you.

So I wondered: what would happen if I did an aborted Genocide Route past the Ruins _as a first go._ Most people I know will either do a Neutral or Pacifist as their first run. If you know enough about the game to even know about the concept of a 'Genocide Run' you're either gonna

A: Know well enough to not do it as your first run

OR

B: Do it as your first run to see what will happen, but certainly not abort once you're past the Ruins.

So I wondered: if I did a Genocide up till the point where Flowey acknowledges me as Chara for a first run, but then aborted it later so that I was back on the Neutral Path, what would Flowey do near the end? Would his dialogue change? Would he still fight his 'best friend'?

Basically what I did was I wiped my Undertale file clean, the same way you would if you felt like having a consequence free run post-Genocide. As far as the game was concerned, this was my first time playing the game.

I named myself Chara and went on a Genocidal killing spree all the way up until the fight with Papyrus (because if you're gonna do an aborted Genocide route, you'd _better_ stop at Papyrus! BTW, Sans' comment after Chara didn't do a violence: "hey, i really respect what you did back there…thanks." Made my heart crack a little bit.) After the fight with Papyrus, however, I kept killing everything in my path (just to be safe and to stay in… _Chara_ cter! Ha! Get it? Get it?) Basically I did a Genocide-sans-Papyrus, killing everyone in my path except for Papyrus and getting up to LV 15 by the time my fight with Asgore came.

So, what were the changes when Flowey popped up?

One line of dialogue. Instead of saying "You idiot…you haven't learned a thing. In this world, it's KILL OR BE KILLED!" He said: "Chara…you do remember, don't you? In this world IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED!"

After that, the fight proceeded the same: I spared Flowey at the end and he didn't acknowledge me at all as Chara. When he popped back up after Sans and Papyrus' neutral-route call he just gave Chara the usual nag fest about not finishing the job (Oh, yeah, NOW I'm really motivated to do what you say after you NEARLY KILLED ME! Fricking Flowey…)

And y'know what? This game is so freaking good that I don't in the least regret going through all that trouble just for the sake of one line change. In fact, I'm planning on doing it all AGAIN so that I can see if there's any difference if I kill Flowey. Good show, Toby, good show.

So that's what happened on my run. Now, while I continue to plot this next chapter out, I have a question for all you sickos out there that have gone through either the Genocide route or a particularly violent Neutral Route: we all know that so many of these lovable characters are darn near impossible to kill, but was there any character that you were _happy_ to kill? I, for my part, enjoyed every second of smacking Muffet into submission (sorry, Muffet fans, she gave me hell on my first round…also, I've got arachnophobia.) What about you guys? Who did you most enjoy killing and who did you most hate killing? Comment below, let me know!

Thanks again for being so patient with me, guys! I'll be back as soon as I can!

Lots of Love,

The Amazing Anigirl

Oh, and hey, while I'm at it...200 REVIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I LOOVEEEE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

Okay, I'm calm now! Seriously, guys, thanks so much for all your support! You're the best!


	13. Much-Awaited Chapter 13

Cool air struck Chara's borrowed face as she threw open the fridge, hoping to find some sweets that would give her the added benefit of increasing her HP.

"No chocolate…" she growled under her breath, and Flowey-2 snickered at the childish disappointment in her tone. Back when things had been better, Toriel would always keep a bar of chocolate in the fridge, which Chara was permitted to devour after she ate all of her greens and snails (snails had a lot of protein, after all). Chara had been a chocoholic, to the point where it was almost an addiction. Hot chocolate, bars of chocolate, chocolate sprinkles…she ate it all up. It was somewhat comforting to know that, for as much as Chara had changed, there was still room for chocolate-love in her empty soul.

"Oh, forgive me, Chara," said Asgore, pouring his daughter a cup of warm, perfect herbal tea. "Had I known you would be returning…I would have gotten you all the chocolate in the Underground."

Chara pursed her borrowed lips together. She didn't doubt that, Asgore had always been the indulgent one after all (while Toriel had been a tender mother, she was always adamant that she knew what was best for her children). Still, she allowed the spark of anger from this small annoyance to flare up and feed her wicked Determination. She smiled sweetly and turned to her father, sitting down beside him and taking a sip of tea while Flowey-2 looked on.

"Here, Flowey, I made you one as well," said Asgore, holding the cup up to the sentient flower's mouth. Flowey-2 grumbled at the depreciating, humiliating gesture (as if he _needed_ to be reminded that he had no arms) and turned away. Chara shot a glare his way, not wanting his stubbornness to arouse Asgore's suspicion, but quickly turned her glare into a smile.

"Don't mind Flowey, Dad," she said. "He's just a little shy. He's not used to being around royalty."

Flowey-2, who hadn't yet revealed to Asgore that he was Asriel and was, therefore, the crown prince, rolled his eyes at that, but stayed silent.

Asgore chuckled. "Ahhh, well, that is to be expected. You were the same way when you got here…"

His gentle smile dampened and he glanced at the two empty chairs on the other sides of the table. It felt so, so good to have Chara sitting in her designated chair once more, but somehow her presence emphasized the absence of the others. Somehow not having to chastise Chara and Asriel for having a pea-war, somehow the fact that Chara wasn't her usual impish and rambunctious self, made his heart ache even as her presence filled it with more joy than he had felt in years.

He looked at Toriel's chair. It was a long shot, but she loved Chara. She loved her so much, and once she heard that their daughter had returned from the dead she would surely return, for her sake if nothing else. Maybe she would even be willing to sit in that chair. There was nothing they could do about Asriel's chair; their son's soul was long gone, gone to…wherever angels like Asriel went when they became dust…

But he shook his head. He was being ungrateful. He had already been blessed enough! He'd been given one child back. For now, that was all he could ask for.

Chara finished her tea, setting her cup aside and mumbling something about HP as she wiped her mouth. Flowey-2 was feeling rather thirsty and, because of that, rather impatient. He cleared his throat.

"So, Chara," he said, "As much as I'm sure you're enjoying your reunion, maybe we should get to the _point at hand_!"

"Ah, yes," said Chara, folding her hands on the table and smiling sweetly up at the King of Monsters. "So, Daddy, I guess you're probably wondering why I came back to life."

King Asgore chuckled and placed a loving hand on his daughter's head. "Truthfully, Chara…I really wasn't. I as so happy to see you, I didn't care how you came back."

For a moment, the genuineness of the Monster King, the familiar weight of his potentially-deadly hand resting warmly on her head…it made her LV-encumbered soul stutter for a moment and she almost, almost felt hesitation, regret.

 _Don't…Chara….please…_

A pathetic little voice, one she had managed to silence back at the Ruins, nagged at her ears. She shook her head and suppressed it.

 _No. No hesitation. No mercy._

"Well," she said, "you should know…because if you don't help me, I won't be around for much longer…"

She feigned sadness, even bringing some crocodile tears to the corners of her eyes, and Asgore's gentle eyes widened with woeful concern. He wasn't about to lose Chara again. Even if she asked for his soul, he would do it.

"What do you need, my child?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Well…" said Chara, "A human fell into the underground…Mom had buried me right under the hole over Home, and a little bit of me, a little bit of my soul and my Determination…it was still there, lingering over my own grave."

"But," she said, now lying through her teeth, "the human who fell down recently didn't survive the fall. They died and their soul went away, and I took over the body. I was so determined to come back…to come home…I managed to do it."

"However," she continued seriously, "When I heard what had happened…to you…to Mom…to Asriel…" she paused, as though she was being overcome by emotion, and Flowey-2 was impressed. She was a good liar. Almost too good. To the point where it was even starting to scare him…and he was used to using his innocent appearance for his own selfish benefit.

"Well…it weakened my Determination…and so…I'm feeling weaker. Soon…soon I won't be able to continue like this. I need Determination. I need a human soul."

Asgore felt his own soul freeze. Guilt, overwhelming guilt for what he, in his cowardice had done to the last few children that had fallen down, gripped at his soul. But…at the same time, he felt a rush of hope. Horrid as he was for taking those souls from those children, perhaps now they could finally be put to some benign use. Saving Chara was a worthy cause, after all. He hated to think that killing the past few Fallen might have ultimately been to his benefit, but he would wallow in misery and guilt later. For now, he had to help Chara.

Something, though, something about her red tinted eyes made him pause. He never showed anyone where the souls were, not even Undyne…but that was simply because he didn't want any impatient monsters stealing the souls to achieve a godlike state. But Chara, being a human, couldn't absorb the souls anyway, so there was little risk to showing _her_ the souls.

He stood up, plucked Flowey-2 from Chara's shoulder, and set him gingerly in a nearby pot.

"Please stay there, Flowey," he said, picking up his daughter and setting her on his shoulders. "We'll be back in a moment."

Flowey-2 nodded obediently, suppressing a devilish smile. The old fool had bought it!

Chara was carried out of the kitchen by Asgore. She glanced over her shoulder, winking at her floral companion and mouthing the word 'follow'.

Flowey-2 nodded and climbed out of the pot, crawling stealthily after his best friend and his former father.

* * *

Sans appeared before the Barrier, his heart lurching as its magic vibrated mere feet away. Even he, who was used to dealing with extreme amounts of magic, was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer _power_ of the Barrier. It took a lot of power to hold in the entire monster race, after all. He was tempted to stare for a moment. He hadn't seen the Barrier since he was a baby-bones after all, but he remembered his mission and ignored the damn shield. He looked down and struck the ground with his foot. A few stomps later, an echo greeted him, confirming that Flowey had been right: there was something hidden beneath the floor.

One precise hit from a Gaster Blaster was all it took to destroy the floor, revealing, as Flowey had said, six mechanical capsules holding various colored hearts.

He dropped down, clapped his hands, and chuckled.

"all right, guys and gals and in-betweens," he said to the children's souls. "i need your help. we've got a monster-killer to handle."

And as he smashed the first capsule, which held a gentle pink human soul, he could swear that he sensed the child's soul giving off a cautious, concerned aura.

* * *

Hey all. So we've FINALLY got a chapter update. A short one, but one. I had to do this fast, though, because my daddy's in the hospital. He just got over surgery-he's okay, just in a lot of pain. I wish I could thank you all for your reviews and your replies, but I'll have to put it off for a little while.

Fortunately, school is over in three weeks. I should update before then, but on the pff chance I can't (life hasn't been understanding to me in terms of time right now, as you can imagine) regular updates will resume after that because I'll have WAY more time to type.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, all! I love you guys!


	14. The Return of the Author

Chara and Asgore had hardly made it to the Throne Room when the world became pitch black. Chara's red-tinted eyes had been drifting emotionlessly towards Toriel's covered throne that was stashed in the corner, something she hadn't noticed before, but the entire palace was seemingly plunged into a FIGHT and she, without hesitation, drew her knife and jumped off of Asgore's shoulders. Her father seemed just as startled, though obviously not nearly as _murderously_ startled.

"Now, now, Chara," he said, vaguely wondering where his child had gotten that dangerous blade from but currently being more concerned with her safety than anything. "Be calm. Perhaps this is all a misunderstanding."

"I somehow doubt that," came a squeaky voice at Chara's heels. She looked down and noted with satisfaction that Flowey 2 was by her side. He had done as she said-unlike _back then_ when he hadn't even been able to follow simple orders. She felt a twinge somewhere in her sin-soaked soul. _Good boy, Asriel._

 _Stop…please, stop…_

She snarled. That pathetic voice again. _No mercy,_ she reminded herself, _no hesitation, no love…_

The world was silent for a moment. Every bit of heat seemed to evaporate as the area become as cold as it was dark. Cold as a corpse.

Then, at last, a noise broke the stillness as no less than twenty giant white columns shot up from the ground, knocking Chara back and causing her to lose ten whole HP.

"CHARA!" cried Asgore, grabbing his child and holding her close to his furry chest, protectively shielding her with his body so that the columns could not brush against her once more. The columns seemed to recognize the presence of the Monster King and retreated, merely circling the triad.

Chara squirmed out of her father's protective grasp and looked up at the columns, realizing that they were not columns, but bones. Giant bones.

More bones came out of the ground, shooting up into the air and connecting with one another like pieces of a puzzle. They formed a giant pair of bony arms, which rested atop two of the bony columns. The great hands twitched wickedly and made an attempt to grab Chara, but Asgore once more shielded her and the hands backed off.

Chara stood her ground, narrowing her eyes up at the empty space between the arms, waiting for a face to join the fray.

A face did not come, but from the gloom a square figure slowly formed. Chara raised an eyebrow and looked down at Flowey-2, who looked just as baffled as she until they both realized in unison that it was a giant screen.

Chara gripped her knife, Flowey-2 prepared his friendliness pellets, and the screen flicked on, at first only static showing until, finally, an image appeared.

Sans, lounging on a bar stool at what could only be Grillby's with at least fifty bottles of ketchup surrounding him. He opened his maw wide and swallowed a whole bottle in one gulp before looking up, wincing a bit, as if he had just realized that he was on camera.

"hey," he said simply, winking somehow in spite of being a skeleton.

Chara blinked, looked around to make sure she wasn't on one of Mettaton's stupid shows, and then looked down at Flowey-2, who seemed annoyed at worst.

"Why am I not surprised?" sighed the sentient flower.

"Comedian, what on earth are you doing?" Chara snapped, glancing back at the screen and the skeleton, who was opening another bottle of ketchup.

"i'm on my break," he said with a shrug, "and i figured that as long as i've got godlike power, there's no reason i can't beat ya' from a place of comfort!"

He took another glug of ketchup, sighed happily, and then added, "plus, while i'm here, i don't have to worry about you stealing these."

He pointed to his right eye, which started glowing and rapidly shifting its color. His eyes, Chara realized, which normally only glowed blue when he used his magic, held the six souls of the fallen humans. She growled furiously. Frisk and that other Flowey must have told him where they were.

"You…you…" she snarled.

"idiot?" he supplied with a hint of patronizing joy. "sweetie, you're becoming predictable and I don't even have perfect memory of all the timelines."

Asgore, who had absolutely no clue what was going on and was giving an expression that was a cross between a gentle smile and a befuddled gawk, stepped forward.

"Sans," he said in a firm 'dad' tone. He knew the skeleton quite well-they had come up with a little tradition where Sans stole everyone in Snowdin's letters to Santa and gave them Asgore 'Santa' Dreemur so that he could make their wintertime wishes come true. Papyrus had yet to realize how much he owed his brother for his seasonal happiness. Sans was a good monster (Asgore was convinced that there was no such thing as a _bad_ monster either way, but he knew Sans well enough to know that he was laid-back and only put forth effort when it meant making his brother's smile widen.)

The mere sound of the King's voice caused the murderously jocular glint in Sans' eyes to die off. He turned his color-changing eye towards Asgore.

"I am not sure what you think you are doing," said Asgore, "And I'm sure you mean well, but you must relinquish those souls. You mustn't harm anyone."

Sans sighed sadly. "sorry, fluffybuns. this little brat…"

"That little brat is my daughter," Asgore interrupted, a hint of anger entering his usually tender tone. He could handle slights to his honor, but he had never been the sort to tolerate name-calling when it came to his children.

"your _daughter_ killed my brother! she's been killing everyone, all of your subjects, every monster! undyne, pap, _everyone_!"

That caused Asgore's modicum of aggressiveness to evaporate. He looked down at his daughter, at her shimmering knife, and the question of where she had gotten it from was replaced with the question of _why_ she even _would_ have it.

"Chara," he started to say, slowly, sternly, but not angrily, much as he had in better years, when she had merely broken a vase or cup. "Chara, is that true?"

Chara was almost stunned by the fact that such an accusation had garnered no visible fury from her father, and when she looked into his eyes she noted that they still possessed the same affection they had before. She was almost tempted to say 'yes' just to see how he would react, but she had a mission, and at the moment she didn't feel like RESETTING.

"N-no, daddy," she said, wobbling her lip for effect. "Y-you know I'd never do that! I LOVE all of you."

Flowey-2 snorted at that. Asgore nodded.

"See now, Sans? I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. Perhaps we can settle this over a nice cup of- _whah!"_

His offer of diplomacy was rejected as Sans, tired of waiting, grabbed the King with one of his giant hands and tossed him out of the ring of bones.

"sorry, your majesty," he mumbled, making sure that the King was safe before turning his murderous gaze towards Chara.

"you…" he snarled. The columns swiftly began to close in on Chara. She grabbed Flowey-2 and rolled, barely making it through a gap in the columns.

"Asriel!" she shouted. Flowey-2 cast his friendliness pellets at the screen. They didn't even make it crack.

"you killed my brother…"

A white circle formed at Chara's feet. She looked down, yelped, and jumped to the side just in time: a beam of white light burst forth, taking a few points of health off of Flowey-2 as it brushed against his stem.

"Ouch!" cried the flower.

"You all right?" she queried, taking advantage of her turn and swinging her knife, causing one of the bone columns, which was dangerously close, to move back.

"No…" groaned the flower. "Yeesh, they were never that bad. At least there's no…"

But the beam of deadly white light that Chara had managed to avoid stopped midway to the ceiling and suddenly began to take shape. It solidified into a demon-like form that Flowey-2 would recognize anywhere: a giant Gaster-Blaster.

"Oh…" muttered Flowey-2.

"You _had_ to jinx us!" cried Chara as the Gaster-Blaster opened its massive maw.

"you killed everyone I know…everyone _you knew._ you betrayed all of us…"

"I didn't mean to jinx us!" cried Flowey-2.

"Just don't do it next time," huffed Chara.

"Next time?"

"You _really_ think we're gonna get through this on our first round? Be realistic, Asriel!"

Asgore groaned, shakily stood up, and saw the Gaster-Blaster aiming at his child. He gasped and, instinctually, drew forth his pitchfork-scepter.

"Chara, get down!" he cried, shooting a beam of orange magic at the Gaster Blaster. Chara ducked and the shot struck the Gaster-Blaster, causing its blast of energy to miss the crouching Chara by mere inches and instead causing it to hurdle towards Sans' screen. However, it stopped just before it could strike the screen and, just like the last beam of light, materialized into another giant Gaster-Blaster.

"Like a Hydra," Chara observed. Flowey-2 raised a floral eyebrow.

"A what?" he asked.

"Human myth. Every head you cut off, it grew another. Every beam we dodge turns into another Gaster-Blaster."

"Oh, great," was all Flowey-2 could say, knowing how fond Chara was of dodging.

"…and on top of all that, you nearly made me kill an innocent kid… _my kid,"_ snarled Sans, raising his hands and lazily flicking his wrists.

"for that, _princess_ , here's my judgment…"

The twin Gaster-Blasters turned towards Chara.

"get…"

"Sans, _no!"_ screamed Asgore, running towards his child.

"…dunked…"

"CHARA!"

"…on…"

"Oh, dang it…" Chara sighed as Asgore failed to reach her in time and the Gaster-Blasters fired on both her and Flowey-2.

 _…_

 _Cr…_

 _Crack!_

…

…

 _You cannot give up just yet!_

 _Chara! Stay determined…_

…

 _ **Continue.**_

* * *

"Hey Flowey?"

"Hm?"

"I hear shouting."

"Where, Frisk?"

"You can't hear it?"

"I've got no _ears,_ you idiot! I'm not the best hearer in the Underground!"

"Oh…right! I heard it outside somewhere. Do you see anything?"

"Gimme a sec…no, nothing out there but snow. Maybe Sans is working on something. Just ignore it. Chara's not likely to make alotta noise if she decides to come here, anyway."

"Sounds like it's coming from Grillby's."

"Probably Sans, then."

"Why's he there? I thought he'd be fighting Chara."

"You know Sans."

"Heehee! Good point. Hope whatever he's doing is-"

 **CONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUECONTINUE** **CONTINUECONTINUECONTINUE**

"Hey Flowey?"

"…"

"I hear…"

"Shouting."

"You hear it too?"

"No."

"Then how…?"

Flowey sighed heavily and glanced out the window.

"One…"

* * *

Hey guys!

 ***Audience scowls.**

Heehee…yeaaaah, I have been absent for a while, haven't I?

 ***Audience pulls out torches and pitchforks.**

Wait, wait! I can explain! I'm really sorry I haven't updated in like an eternity, but my reasons are fourfold:

1\. Dad stuff. As mentioned previously, my dad was having heart issues and had to go in for surgery. This has naturally made things a little stressful around here. He's doing better, though. He just got through a second round of surgery to get a wire removed from his chest. Thanks, by the way, to everyone who sent support when I mentioned this in my last message! He's in pain right now, but should be feeling better by the end of the week.

2\. Work! I had to get a job1 Two, actually, but I'll explain that in a second. Job #1 is just a little retail job. Minimum wage, but every little bit helps given the circumstances!

3\. Finishing up a novel! Or, rather, a novelette! I got a cover and anything. Not sure when I'll publish (and when I do it'll be under a pseudonym because I hate the limelight) but hopefully when I do it'll sell a little and bring in the extra bucks. Took a lot of work and meant that my fingers were tired, but that's not nearly as cool as the fact that…

4\. Job #2 is writing for a video game. Yup! This is probably the coolest thing. At the end of last semester one of the guys in my class ended up really loving something I wrote, and he'd been looking for another writer for his little indie team for some time. And I got the spot! I've been editing and reworking scenes and we're almost done with the demo! It's a dialogue-based game where, instead of normal fighting, you have to use words and smarts in order to defeat your enemies and (potentially) save your country. It's actually super awesome!

We literally just started up the Facebook. I'll have a cut-up link below. A ton of work is going into this game, and personally it feels like something you guys would like (we're all huge Undertale nerds on the team!) It would mean the world to me if you guys would go check out the page and see if it's something you'd like.

Okay, shameless plugging over. Here's the link:

www. facebook [dot com]/ ProjectAltenburg/ ?fref=nf&pnref=story

Just replace [dot come] with the usual url dot com and get rid of the spaces and there's the link! The game is called Silvertongue, btw, in case you needed to know.

Back to the topic of fanfiction, though: unfortunately, my retail position hasn't been giving me a ton of hours. Fortunately, that means I have more time to write right now! I can't make any promises for dates since game work and family is taking up a ton of my time, but you all have been so awesome and I really love this story. I am _determined_ to finish it and update as often as possible. I may not know when that will happen, but I WILL continue to update. This fic WILL be completed. And it will likely have a sequel as well-I had one in my head already!

This story currently had 237 reviews, 198 favorites, and is on the alerts list of 277 people. That is INSANE. It's sat at the top of the Undertale Fics by ratings for months, even when I haven't been updating. I really didn't expect this to be going so well, and to everyone who's been reading, thanks so-so-so-so much! I won't let you down! This fic will be finished!

So…do you forgive me?

 ***Audience raises torches and pitchforks.**

Evidently not.

 ***Select Flee**

Audience: GET HERRRR!

(No, seriously, guys, you're all awesome and I'm sorry I made you wait so long!)

Oh, also, I wanted to note for those of you that read my non-Undertale related fics that a great person by the name of JencenD offered to translate my OFF fic, _The Player Knows Best,_ into Russian! Thanks a ton, JencenD! Don't know if you read this fic, but if you do, you get hugs!

Also also: Happy Forth to all my American readers!


	15. The Way Overdue New Chapter

New chapter! Long! Writing in between mid-terms! No time for intros or apologies, let's go, go, go!

* * *

 _Long ago:_

"hey, dad?"

A grunt.

"dad?"

A sigh.

"daaaaaaaad?"

A roll of the eyes.

"daddaddaddaddaddaddaddad!"

A brief wonder if childlessness was still an option before he brushed off that regrettable thought and turned down towards his son.

Sans had managed to sneak his way into Doctor Wingding Gaster's lab and was currently smiling up at his father. Not that the eldest Gaster child ever really did anything but smile, but as of now his eyes matched the usual wideness of his grin. Bright white, but with a slight hint of azure that the child monster had yet to fully control. Sans' hands were tucked into the pockets of his oversized jacket and a small knitted blue and white hat was hiding his bald skull.

Gaster decided to indulge the boy, setting aside his forceps and carefully placing the formula he had been working on away.

"Yes, Sans?" he said.

"i came up with a new one," the small skeleton proclaimed proudly (Gaster briefly found himself sighing: small was a perfect descriptor for his eldest, who seemed to be growing sideways more than up. He hoped his child's stout appearance wouldn't hurt him in the future if he ever sought a partner).

"Oh? Truly?"

"uh huh! wanna hear it?"

"Go right ahead."

"what does it take to become a skeleton doctor?"

"Besides years of medical school? What?"

"a lot of… _dead_ -ication!"

Sans winked, shrugging his shoulders comedically, a posture he had nearly perfected after spending hours watching videotapes of comedian monsters doing the same. Gaster snorted and playfully pulled his son's little ice cap over the child's eyes.

"That was actually quite clever," he said, and Sans, after giggling, pushed his hat back up, revealing that his eyes were absolutely sparkling. Little delighted Sans more than someone appreciating one of his bad jokes (except maybe when his toddler baby brother, who evidently hated puns more than broccoli, whined loudly upon hearing a pun. Barely three years old in monster time and Papyrus was already developing his own distinctive taste in humor, one that did not include his big brother's quips).

"Why don't you go to tell that one to Papyrus? I'm sure he'll _looove_ it," said Gaster with a wink.

"love like normal love or love like LOVE?"

"Probably more the latter."

"heehee! you're right! i already told him. he said i'm the worst big brother ever and now he's never gonna talk to me again. so i'm bored."

"Ah," replied Gaster. It normally took about an hour and a half after Papyrus proclaiming that he would never talk to Sans again for the toddler to completely forget whatever (usually pun-related) sin Sans had committed and resume his normal habit of following his big brother everywhere. Gaster, for one, was rather happy that his two little boys normally could never stay angry at one another. He had been terrified that Sans would resent his baby brother, as so many elder siblings were wont to do when suddenly introduced to a new family member they were expected to take responsibility for.

But Sans loved his baby brother. Papyrus could seemingly do no wrong in the little skeleton's eyes, and while he did like to playfully pick on him from time to time (as in most of the time) he would never bully or ignore his little brother. They usually kept one another company while Gaster was busy in the lab, which was good. It made being a stressed, overworked single father all the easier.

Gaster tapped his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds before his own plain white eyes brightened.

"Sans, why don't you go down to the range?" he asked. "Practice your Gaster Blaster mastering?"

Sans' grin somehow seemed to stretch.

"'kay!" declared the child before bolting from the room. Gaster sighed. Hadn't bothered to teleport himself. Well, children would be children. He probably just wanted an excuse to skitter around the palace halls and tell every guard he encountered that he was the Gaster Blaster Master.

Gaster gritted his slightly brittle teeth. His son's constant refusal to hone his science-given techniques, while not being too much of a problem right now since they lived in a large palace with sturdy walls and healers on standby, would eventually become something of an issue. For as much as he loved the powers he had inherited, Little Sans hardly ever used them or went down to the gym to practice properly.

Gaster smiled a tad. Well, he'd learn eventually. It wasn't as though they didn't have some time. And then he would defend the Underground from humans, just as Gaster had intended.

The doctor frowned. Well, somewhat how Gaster had intended. Initially the experiments, the formulas, all of it, all of it had been done on him, Gaster. He had tested it all on himself and when it had seemed to fail, he'd set aside the formulas and moved on to another one, not even flinching when a small fire broke out in his lab and destroyed his seemingly useless notes.

He hadn't known until Sans, barely two years old, sobbed for his father one day and ended up accidentally summoning a Gaster Blaster and knocking down the roof of the daycare. Nobody was injured, thankfully, but Gaster was struck with the realization that his eldest son (and possibly his younger son as well, though if Papyrus had access to the powers he had yet to demonstrate it) had somehow gotten the human-defeating powers that Gaster had been instructed to give to every guard.

He had tried to replicate it many times, but without his notes it could take years for him to figure out what exactly he had done to create an unnaturally strong boss monster where, previously, there had only been a little skeleton.

So for now, Sans was the Underground's best bet. He had yet to tell King Asgore about him, worried that the King, for as kind as he was, might put too much pressure on turning Sans into his little human-killer. Asgore so hated ending the fallen humans that he might have given anything to let somebody else do it in his stead, and once Sans perfected his powers…well, even Asgore might become a mere thorn in any hostile human's side by comparison.

Gaster shook his head. No need to dwell on such nastiness right now. No humans had fallen down in years, and by the time another came scampering in Sans would probably either be perfectly fine with defending his kingdom or halfway across the Underground, telling jokes to raucous applause. The latter was more likely. Little Sans seemed destined to become a comedian first, and a brave warrior second.

The doctor returned to his work, becoming so focused that he hardly heard a knock on the door.

"Enter!" he cried kindly, thinking that it was probably Papyrus searching for his big brother.

He was surprised when, far from it, it was a guard.

"Sir, forgive me," they said. "We're putting everything in lockdown. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to pause your work and head back to your quarters."

"Lockdown?" repeated Gaster in shock even as he obeyed, screwing a cap onto a vial and setting his instruments aside. He cast his white coat away and asked, "Why are we in lockdown? And can I have a moment to retrieve my children?"

"Children? Oh…oh dear…"

"What is it? Why are we in lockdown?"

"The…the sentries say a human is in the halls…" the guard raised their eyes. "And they're armed."

* * *

Little Sans might have made it to the gym sooner if he had taken advantage of the time rifts that his father had taught him about, but he liked to walk the halls sometimes. Look out the windows, observe the kingdom below. Good visuals for later naps, and sometimes when he looked below and let his mind wander he would think of some good puns to share with his Dad.

He might have frowned had he the ability. Dad was brilliant, but busy almost all the time. Sans didn't entirely mind, as it gave him plenty of free time and Dad rarely hesitated to pause his work long enough to listen to a new pun his eldest had managed to come up with, but still it would have been nice to see him more often. The sentries and everyone who knew King Asgore well said that he had spent most every free second with his children, pausing only when kingly duties became dire. Sans couldn't say that he would want that, after all he could imagine it would get suffocating after awhile (given that his father, being a strong monster, would likely be around for an extremely long time) but he might have appreciated it if Dad offered to come down every once in awhile and help him practice with the Gaster Blasters.

Still, it was a different situation. Asgore had been a father to at least one human child, and he must have known back then that he would outlive Chara by a long time. Every second spent with her and his son must have been all the more precious given the fact that he must have known he wouldn't have many, even without foreknowledge of the tragedy that had ended up taking Chara and Asriel long before their respective times.

Sans was thinking of that fallen human as he heard small footsteps. He paused.

They were too hefty to belong to little Papyrus, and there were no other children his age that should have been in this wing of the palace.

Sans, almost by instinct, ducked behind the first column he saw. It was always a bit dark in the palace. No sunlight meant that open windows could only do so much as far as lighting went, and so he barely was able to make out the figure that drew near.

Short, short like him. The rest was shadow. He couldn't see their eyes, their face, their garb. All he knew was that judging from the outline and from the sheer power he felt emanating off of them, they were not a monster.

Human.

Legends and tales and spooky stories that the guards often told him on Halloween buzzed through his mind as he gazed at the human. Stories of a great and unjustified war that was the whole reason they were down below, the whole reason Daddy had so little time to spend with him. Stories of humans slaughtering monsters by the hundreds, thousands. A single human destroying an entire monster village, two a city, three a small country's worth of innocent monsters. Monsters might have had their magic, but there was hardly a monster alive that could stand against a human in direct, fair battle. At least that was what the guards had said.

Dad had disagreed with that morbid sentiment. Sans looked down at his skin-free palm and a small white glow formed around his hand. He, well, he had a power in him that other monsters simply did not. Dad's science experiments had guaranteed that much. Papyrus may or may not have had it, but he definitely did.

And here was a vile human drawing near, threatening his life and the lives of everyone he loved. Their mere presence, their power, made fear flash through little Sans' small body.

But something else joined it. A tug. A feeling that he could do what nobody else could. He could stop this menace before it hurt anybody.

Determination.

Determination to stop a true monster filled the little skeleton and his left eye was consumed by an azure glow.

He raised his hand, summoning his magic and something else right along with it: a very tiny, monstrous skull with a wide maw that glowed with a powerful white aura. No bigger than his head, it floated above him. The Gaster Blaster, his father's most powerful creation thus far.

Sans pointed it towards the silhouette as it drew closer.

Closer.

They placed a foot in a small square of light that the windows allowed in and Sans paused only long enough to whisper three words before he fired:

"get dunked on…"

A shot, a blast.

A scream. A scream that reminded him far too vividly of the girly little wail that Papyrus let out when he was frightened by one of Sans' little pranks, except this one didn't belong to a toddler boy, but to a little girl.

The human flew back, landing in another square of light, and Sans leapt out of his hiding place, his little Gaster Blaster at the ready.

Until he slowly stepped close and took in the human's appearance.

A girl indeed: a little girl in a slightly-torn pink tutu, with curly brown hair and great gray-blue eyes. Sans' heart, which had been pounding with excitement, screeched to a halt as the girl groaned, grasping her chest and slowly, shakily standing.

A kid. Just like him, about as tall, only with skin. She didn't look ugly or evil at all. She didn't even look a little mean. Not even mischievous. Hardly human, in fact. Hardly monstrous.

Like a female him, except with skin.

His bones started rattling nervously when he saw tears leaking from her eyes. There was a pink twinkle in them, one that might have been cute were they not filled with pain at the moment.

"Ow…" she whimpered, meeting the young monster's gaze. No anger, no hatred, not even fear, just hurt.

"My HP…my HP…" she wept softly, still clutching her heart. "You knocked it…I can't get that back…I'm outta…why? I didn't do anything…"

Guilt gripped his soul.

"i…" he muttered, unsure of what to say. "i could…my dad's a doctor, he can fix you! i'm sorry, i thought…."

"You didn't think at all!" she cried.

"my dad'll…"

"He won't! He won't! He'll just FIGHT me like the others! Go away! You ruined everything, you stupid monster!"

And with that, she gave him a rough shove, sending him to the ground. That forceful motion from the powerful soul might have been enough to end the little monster right there had he struck the ground instead of grabbing onto his Gaster Blaster and pulling himself back to his feet.

"wait…c'mon…i…" he cried, but the little girl was already gone.

He considered chasing after her, but at that moment there was a cry: "Found him!"

And before he knew it, he was back in Dad's lab. Gaster hugged him tightly and confessed to how worried he'd been while little Papyrus scolded him in his squeaky little voice.

"Ya' shouldn't go owt wike that, Snans," the toddler said, stumbling over his words as per usual even as he spoke them with great loudness and gusto. "Ya mighta' got huwt! Aw ya' huwt, Snans?"

Papyrus looked rather thoughtfully at his brother's face, poking at his bony cheek. Even the little toddler could note that his brother's perpetual smile seemed like it was only there because Sans had no way of banishing it.

Sans said nothing, and once the alert died down nobody asked him any questions. The very next day everything seemingly went back to normal. Gaster went back to his work and Sans and Papyrus went back to their games-hide and seek specifically.

Sans' focus was off, however. There was a melancholy hanging over the castle that wasn't usually there, at least not to this degree. The guards seemed to be gripping their weapons limply, the maids and servants were thin-lipped and exchanged hushed, worried whispers, and Sans himself kept allowing his mind to wander back to the human girl, wondering what had become of her.

He found out before lunchtime, after Papyrus approached him in the hall, having been hidden away for almost a full hour.

"heheh…sorry, bro…" chuckled Sans. "looks like you won that round, i'm a little…little…"

But before he could come up with a pun that would describe how distracted he was, he noticed the look on little Papyrus' face: bothered. He wasn't wailing or crying like he did when something minor upset him. This wasn't a 'stubbed toe' or 'lost toy' look. Papyrus was severe.

"The Kwing's cwyin…" the toddler said.

"what…?"

"The Kwin. He's cwyin. The Gweat Papywus was in the Thwone Woom and…"

He explained no more and grabbed his brother's hand, dragging him down that direction. Sans almost resisted, realizing before they even arrived why the King was crying.

Seeing only confirmed his suspicions. The King was there, curled up on a small bed of flowers, with a little pink heart tucked safely in a jar pressed to his big fuzzy chest.

When Doctor Gaster paused his experiments long enough to go to his little boys and say good-night, he found that his eldest had tears in his eye-sockets. The puckish little skeleton dodged several questions before he finally broke down, confessing to his sin.

Gaster might have celebrated such a confession-his boy! _His_ boy used _his_ experiments to nearly take down a human single-handedly! But he saw the guilt etched on Sans' bony features and instead assured the boy that he wasn't to blame for the human's demise.

"but i mighta'…she mighta'…" Sans started crying. "i said sorry, but i thought they were gonna hurt everyone and i…i'm sorry!"

Gaster's thin non-lips somehow or another managed to tighten even as he rather tenderly scooped up his sobbing older son. "And that, Sans, is why you must never judge hastily. Always give people-monsters and humans-a chance to prove you wrong before you make any assumptions. Never strike unless they've exhausted every bit of trust you can summon. I need you to do that for me, Sans. Otherwise…I…I've always thought that you managed to inherit the powers for a good reason. I need you to prove me right, okay?"

Sans touched his tearstained face and nodded.

"The whole reason the war broke out-all of this misery…it didn't happen because one side was evil and the other was good, it happened because everyone jumped to conclusions. The humans jumped to conclusions about us, what we were and what we would do to them if we got the chance. So prove them wrong. Don't do the same, okay? Prove them wrong and prove me right, okay?"

Sans nodded again, tears vanishing though his eyes-which had suddenly lost their hint of blue-remained somber.

"Yes, Dad," he vowed. "I will. Promise."

And if there was one thing that could never be called into question, it was Sans' determination to never break a promise unless the world was at stake.

* * *

Years later, as Sans, for the first time, broke a solemn vow and killed Chara for what must have been the tenth time, a strange stirring occurred in his stomach. He quashed it, and when Chara inevitably chose to CONTINUE, forgot it entirely.

But the little pink soul hadn't forgotten. And if there was one thing that history had proved it was that not all humans were as forgiving as Frisk.

* * *

Long as hell chapter here, hence the inordinately long wait. Sorry about that, guys!

Again, I'd love to thank you all individually, but school has sapped my strength, so I'll hopefully be able to do that in the next chapter!

Hope this long chapter makes up for the long wait! Please review, you are all awesome!

Also…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 **Audience: GEEEET HEEEER!**

*Audience chasing a neglectful Amazing Anigirl away.


	16. A Long as Hell Chapter : )

"Three hundred and sixteen…"

For the three-hundred and sixteenth time Frisk opened his mouth to comment on the sound coming from Grillby's and for the three-hundred and sixteenth time Flowey had to stop him before he could repeat the same damn dialogue more than once.

Chara had certainly earned her Determination, that much was clear. Flowey's impatience hadn't allowed him to try more than a hundred times on a single Boss before he threw up his leaves and moved on to something less frustrating. Chara, however, was so steadfast in her goal to destroy everything she had once been willing to die for that she was ready to die hundreds of times in a desperate attempt to destroy the skeletal demigod.

Why Sans was even bothering with a FIGHT was a mystery in its own regard, though Flowey suspected that the stout skeleton had surrendered to an almost sadistic urge for revenge. Destroying Chara instantly every time wouldn't be _fun._ It wouldn't be _revenge._ It wouldn't allow Sans to watch the girl who had turned his brother to dust have her plans foiled again and again and again. It was a desire Flowey could relate to, but in this case he wished that the skeleton would stop metaphorically playing with his food and end her as swiftly as possible. Death wasn't a walk in the park, after all, and enough ungodly painful deaths might eventually convince even the wickedly stalwart human child to RESTART.

Maybe.

It was a long shot, but it was also their only shot. Thus, painful as it was for a being with all of Asriel's memories of Chara to confess it, the more times Chara died, the better.

At least Frisk wasn't being aggravating for once. The boy knew enough about the power of the CONTINUE button to know what Flowey meant when he suddenly blurted out a number. He would merely nod and lie back down, knowing that from this point on anything he said would be pointless.

Flowey hissed in pain as he crawled with his damaged roots towards the window, peeking out. The idiot was taking longer than usual this time, and Flowey, for a moment, became nervous. The sentient flower almost wanted to leap down and see what the comedian was doing, but his roots were throbbing and besides, Frisk needed supervision. Even with Flowey all but shoving cinnabuns in the boy's face every other minute, he had only managed to get the boy back up to 3 HP before the slew of CONTINUES began. Trying to get Frisk's HP up any more would be a waste of energy and patience: Chara would lose, Chara would CONTINUE, and Frisk would be right back to 3 HP.

 _I guess I know how Smiley feels all the time now,_ thought the flower, who wasn't one for empathy but began to feel a ghost of it for a fleeting moment as he imagined having to deal with this feeling every day. The feeling that anything he did would be undone with the press of a button, that any effort he made was worthless, that trying to do anything would amount to nothing. He'd had to deal with this when Frisk had first stolen the power away from him, but Frisk hadn't died this nearly many times. Besides, Frisk's mere presence in the Underground had represented a change, and thus Flowey's loss of the power had not been so weighty. This was different in the worst way. It was enough to turn anyone into a lazy good-for-nothing.

A fresh burst of determination shot through the flower. Not in a million years would he emulate that comedian, at least not as far as sheer worthlessness was concerned. Trying to heal Frisk might have been a pointless venture, but chatting him up might be a good way to lift his spirits, perhaps even increase what traces of Determination he had managed to cling to.

"Hey, Moldsmal-brain," Flowey said, gritting his teeth as he made his way back onto Frisk's pillow and leaned over the boy, nearly nose-to-nose with him. The child managed a weak giggle, a sound that would have normally only served to annoy Flowey but was rather nice to hear given that he hadn't heard it since Sans had gone filicidal.

"If I'm a Moldsmal-brain, then you're a mulch-brain," the boy retorted.

"You're learning," said Flowey with a smirk. "Smiley's taking longer this time."

"He is? Didn't notice."

"Duh."

"It's weird…not being able to tell when it happens this time, not even at all. Not even a feeling of it like Dad…are you getting bored?"

"You bet, but not too bored. Not nearly as bored as I could be. Got plenty of worry to hold me between rounds."

"You think Chara and Dad are gonna fight forever?"

"I doubt it. When she was…better…Chara was pretty tough, didn't give up too often, but eventually she just kicked the chessboard and moved on to something else. Even if she's different now…well, nobody can play the same game over and over again and never walk away."

"Heehee! You'd be surprised. Mom told me about this one guy who used to…Flowey!"

"They used to…me?"

"Your roots!" cried the child, whose great, swollen eyes had found Flowey's injured floral limbs. The human gazed at them in horror and Flowey realized that with all of the excitement and with Frisk having been so wounded, he hadn't bothered to mention or tend to his amputated roots.

"It's not a big deal," he promised. "I got stuck in Muffet's Lair, had to make a painful choice. They'll grow back."

"What happened? Did…did you _bite_ off your own roots?"

Flowey ran his tongue over his teeth, which still had a grassy taste to them. "Like I said, painful. The things I do just to get your moronic behind out of trouble…"

Before he could scold or mock the boy, however, Flowey was yanked into a hug, one far too weak for Frisk. Frisk's hugs were usually strong and tight. Too tight, it usually seemed, for a child so small and frail. This slack hug both worried Flowey and, at the same time, soothed some of the aggravation nestled in his stem.

"I'm sorry I wandered," Frisk said. "It's just my thing."

"Well… _your thing_ almost got you killed. Don't do _your thing_ again."

"Can't believe you _bit_ them off…thanks, Flowey."

"Tell anyone and I bite your roots off."

"I don't have any roots, silly!"

"Toes, roots…"

"If you try and bite my toe-roots, I'll start singing again…"

"Don't you…"

" _Oooooh!"_

"Frisk, don't you even think about…!"

" _F is for Flowey who is my best friend, U is for…"_

But mercifully, before Frisk could finish his own annoying rendition of a song that Flowey already found insufferable, Chara was slaughtered for the three-hundred and seventeenth time and they were right back where they started: Flowey sitting beside Frisk, Frisk opening his mouth to speak, Flowey silencing him with an updated number.

But a small smile had come to Flowey's mouth, sad and happy at once. It was more genuine emotion than he was normally able to summon, much less that he was willing to show, and he had a hug to thank for it.

* * *

 _He was alone._

 _Back at the beginning, resting above the body of his best friend, roots digging deep into the sunbathed soil. The Ruins, Home, lay ahead, and he was with Chara, sitting in the midst of a bed of golden flowers._

 _Alone. It was where he belonged. The story had finally ended, just like it was supposed to. The horrid villain defeated and left behind in the dark while the hero and his beloved friends marched victoriously to their reward._

 _He looked up, lifting his leaves towards the beams of sunlight that refreshed his floral body and taunted him all the while. His toys would be basking in true, full sunlight soon. His game was over. He had lost._

 _Anger flared in the center of his stem. That damn kid! At first his presence had been a blessing, something new, something different, something unpredictable. A new toy that would take Flowey some time to tear apart…_

 _So much for that. At least this was different, but this was the worst sort of different. Time would pass as it was supposed to. There would be no more games, no more experiments. There would only be him, Flowey the Flower, alone save for Chara's corpse._

 _He shut his eyes and tried to nap. There would be little else to do now. He could go to the surface, of course, but the little idiot would confront him and toss him into an even worse prison-and that was assuming the comedian didn't tear him apart chloroplast by chloroplast._

 _And so he rested, tried to nap, half hoped that he would wither up in his sleep and pass beyond the veil. A dull ache was still throbbing where he had placed the stolen souls, a strange something-a feeling-teasing him. He growled. So close to emotion. He had tasted it, like a man trapped in a desert might sample cactus water, and now he was parched once more._

 _Somewhat. Some sparks of emotion, he realized, were still dancing in his heart, and the most prominent of the bunch was a deep feeling of self-hate._

 _He hadn't realized how much Asriel hated him. How much he hated himself._

 _Asriel had fought tooth and claw to hang on to himself for as long as he could, but shortly after Frisk had exited he had succumbed to soulnessness. Flowey was reborn, with full knowledge of how much he didn't want to be himself._

" _I wish…" he whispered, looking up at the sun and letting the rays pang his eyes. "I wish…"_

 _But before he could wish aloud for death or nonexistence or anything of the sort, a sound struck his nonexistent ears: a small footstep._

 _Another._

 _Another._

 _He shut his eyes. Someone was here. Probably Sans. The skeleton come to finish the job, he knew it. And he had no intention of fleeing._

 _The sunlight was blocked out and he opened his eyes to view the one he thought was going to be his executioner._

 _Sans' vengeful blue magic did not greet him. Instead, a bright smile did._

 _It was Frisk. Frisk, smiling gently, cradling something in his arms. Flowey arched an eyebrow and was about to sneer at him for going back on his merciful nature, for he was certain that Frisk was either here to FIGHT or to gloat. Before the sentient flower could speak, however, he looked closely at what Frisk was holding._

 _A pot. A flowerpot with a heart-shaped sticker on it._

 _He looked from the pot to the boy's smile, the speckle of emotions that he still retained tugging at his stem, urging him to smirk._

 _He didn't. He scowled._

" _No," he said, turning away from the boy. Frisk's smile didn't falter. He knelt down before the flower._

" _No," the flower said again. "Not in a million years."_

 _The boy set the flowerpot aside._

" _If you think I wanna spend my time with you and your loser friends stuck in a little cup, you're just as delusional as you are stupid! Ha! Well, on the other hand, it may be fun to tear you to shreds when you sleep, when you least expect it. Grab Toriel and the skele-morons, make you watch as I rip their souls from their bodies."_

 _The child stayed silent and even though he wasn't facing him any longer, Flowey could tell that the human's smile hadn't gone away. He could sense its presence._

" _But no, I'll do that on my own, when I feel like it. I'm not humoring you. I have no idea why you're even here. It's a waste of your time…well, I guess nothing's a waste of_ _ **your**_ _time. Heehee! So…when's the next RESET?"_

" _Never." The child's voice was calm, tender, like Toriel's had been once upon a time._

" _Ha! I give you a year before you're back down here. We'll be doing this all over again, only next time I won't be as…restrained as I was! Heehee!"_

 _The boy didn't move and Flowey snarled, turning to him and showing off his most horrifying face._

" _ **Don't you get it, you little idiot? Stay here, take me…whatever happens, I'll slaughter you. You're not gonna get away with humiliating me and then take me home like I'm some kind of pathetic pet! I don't need your pity, I don't need your pot, I do not need you! I don't need anyone! Get out or I'll…"**_

 _But before he could complete his threat, he was pulled into a hug. If he had a heart, it would have stopped._

" _I'll…" he said, demonic façade fading away. Warmth spread through his floral form and he almost gasped, surprised and…happy? Was that it? He couldn't quite tell what it was, but Frisk's embrace managed to energize his leftover feelings._

" _I'll…I…" the sentient flower mumbled, stiff stem slowly becoming slack. He didn't lean into the human child's embrace, but he didn't fight it._

" _I forgive you," Frisk said. "For everything. It's not pity or anything. I just don't wanna leave you down here."_

 _He picked up the pot and pushed it towards the flower. "I'll protect you," the boy promised, "From Sans and everyone. Promise."_

 _He pressed his index finger over his striped shirt and made an 'X' motion above his heart. Flowey looked down at the pot, at the small pile of good dirt that the human child had put in, latent emotions still stirring stubbornly even as he made an attempt to suppress them._

" _Why?" he said at last. "I can't understand…"_

 _The child giggled brightly and scooped the flower into his hands._

"' _Cause…" he declared, "You're my friend!"_

 _Flowey's face darkened. "I'm not Asriel," he snapped. "I'm not going to be Asriel."_

" _No, you're Flowey. Flowey the Flower," said the child. He gently placed the flower into the pot and stepped back, inviting him to crawl out if it so desired._

 _Flowey looked down at his roots, which stuck out the sides of the pot. He looked down at the bed of golden flowers, at Chara's last resting place, and then at the boy. He felt the sun caressing his petals, looked at the boy's soft and merciful smile, and he once again felt something, this time a familiar blaze in his soulless body._

 _Determination._

 _He buried his roots into the pot's soil._

" _I'd better not regret this," he warned as the child picked him up._

 _And he didn't._

* * *

Three-hundred and sixteen.

That was how many times her skin had been burned to a crisp, her bones shattered by magical bones, her body blown to pieces by a precise shot from a Gaster-Blaster.

Again and again and again they walked into the room. Sans would (with less and less gusto as time went on) briefly tell Asgore that Chara was a monster in the worst sense of the word before engaging the child in battle and ripping her and her little flower friend to bloody bits every single time.

Chara's mental faculties had hardly been _stable_ even before Sans' many, many, many, many, many, many, many victories, but his many victories certainly hadn't helped. The thought of quitting, starting over, had crossed her mind only once before she'd quashed it. She had no recourse. No way of going back (she cursed the fact that she didn't have the ability to set up multiple SAVE files) without ruining everything, especially now that the other Flowey and Frisk were here.

And so she stayed determined. She held her father's hand and let him lead her back into the room, drew her knife when the world became black, and held out one arm for Flowey-2 to crawl on while Asgore murmured the same shocked comments he had the last three-hundred and sixteen times.

Sans appeared, sipped some more ketchup, showed off the souls, and began to explain to Asgore that Chara was a murderous psychopath.

"Blablabla…" murmured Flowey-2. "What's the plan this time, Chara?"

"We may never win this," she whispered. Flowey-2 looked up at her in awe.

"I'm not quitting," she assured him. "The issue's the souls. Do you think you can get over to Grillby's in the next FIGHT?"

"Maybe if I hurry and if you can keep the Trashbag distracted for awhile. Can you hold him off until then?"

Chara was about to speak, but she was interrupted by a deep, pleading voice:

"Chara…"

Asgore, having had his daughter's crimes laid bare before him, turned to Chara as he had every time before, eyes wide, but still soft as they always were. Still full of fatherly tenderness.

"Chara…is that true?"

She looked up at him. She had almost forgotten about him entirely, so focused was she on Sans and on beating him by herself. She hadn't bothered to do anything but lie to his face every single time.

Curiosity beckoned to her and for the first time she replied: "Yes."

Asgore's shoulders, burdened by his own sins, seemed to take on Chara's at that moment, sagging horribly. He swallowed and asked, voice raspy, "May…may I ask why?"

There was a question Chara has neither taken the time to consider, nor, if asked, would have normally bothered to waste time pondering. The only person up until this point who she would have been willing to pause for was Flowey-2, and the sentient flower knew full well why she was doing what she was doing. He snickered and was about to taunt their father, but Chara spoke before he could:

"Because I can."

Asgore stood for a moment, breath bated, awaiting a detailed elaboration that would not come. Sans watched the father and daughter with interest, grinding his teeth together, soul power flaring up as he gazed at the child's blade and waited for her to commit patricide right before his eyes.

She didn't strike, however. Instead she stared up at Asgore, curiosity becoming so strong that she couldn't keep it from showing in her scarlet eyes.

"Well?" she said when the silence became unbearable. "Are you mad?"

She smiled wickedly. "I did kill them all, you realize. Everyone. Every single pathetic monster you tried to protect and give hope to…dust. Worthless dust. All that effort, all those tears, all those sins you committed…all for nothing. You're the king of dust now, _Daddy._ Nothing more."

She held up her blade. "So…are you mad?"

Asgore twitched, shaking as though he was sick, but the warmth refused to abandon his eyes. There was still affection, still love.

"I am, Chara," he said carefully before he offered her a broken smile, placed a great fuzzy hand onto her head and pulled her to his chest.

A hug. Even after all she had done, he was giving her a hug.

"I killed Mom," she growled. He quaked as though he was only barely holding in a sob.

"I killed her…" Chara hissed. "I didn't even feel a thing. I enjoyed it."

He didn't push her away. She snarled.

"What's wrong with you?! You're pathetic!"

He didn't move.

"Hate me!" she ordered. "Come on! Be a man for once and hate me! Strike me down! I'll kill you!"

She felt a few warm tears strike her head.

"I love you very much, Chara," he said. "I'll never hate you. Nothing you do could make me hate you."

Flowey-2 gazed up at him, wide-eyed, an ache in his stem. Would he have said the same thing to Asriel?

Chara hissed, but her stolen soul began to stir and she froze, wide-eyed as a familiar warmth settled in her heart. It was the same feeling she had felt when she and Asriel had sat together and watched movies, when Toriel had gently tugged the knots out of her hair, when Asgore had carried her on his strong shoulders. It was dull, subdued, but undoubtedly there and it felt wonderful.

She had forgotten how wonderful it felt to care, to love…

 _Chara…Chara stop!_

The little voice begged. She felt tears in her eyes and she almost, almost obeyed.

"Chara!"

But Flowey-2's voice pulled her from her memories, from her daze, and the warmth in her chest became icy cold once again.

She lashed out, slashing at the foolish Boss Monster, cutting his soul from his body. Asgore stumbled back and only had enough time to smile tearfully at his daughter before he was reduced to dust.

Chara panted. The warmth was gone and she felt emptier than ever.

She looked up at Sans, whose eyes were black with fury.

"and for a second i thought you might'a seen the light…" he snarled. "but people like you are never happy, i guess…"

"Shut up and come at me!" she replied, more furious than ever.

His immovable grin seemed to stretch and he raised up the souls. The room began to vibrate with magic and Asgore's ashes scattered to and fro.

Chara's grip on her knife tightened and she looked up at Sans, trying to ignore the stirring in her stolen soul as she caught a glimpse of her father's remains. She focused on the souls.

She noticed something right then: the pink one was twitching, shaking as though furious, and when Asgore's ashes scattered the souls brightened, as though delighted.

Chara's eyes widened and she stood still in the center of the room as Sans took aim.

"Chara!" hissed Flowey-2. "What are…?"

"Quiet, dummy," she said. "I have a plan."

A strike, a crack, a continue.

Three-hundred and seventeen.

Chara looked up, smiled at Asgore, and placed her hand in his, the stirring in her chest having been replaced with a fresh flare of determination.

* * *

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Good God Almighty, where did I go? Well, firstly, I went to school and then I took a needed vacation, and then I got writer's block and then I made a ton of excuses, but I managed to hammer out a long chapter so you're all contractually obligated not to hate me!

Anyway, all kidding aside, sorry for the lack of updates again, guys. I've been having a ton of school worries and emotionally I've been kind of drained as of late, but fortunately I have writing to help me out and I feel much, much better now. I have a few days until school starts again for me, so hopefully I'll be able to get at least some writing done for this fic in addition to my original works (Did I mention that I did NaNoWriMo this year? It was HELL but I did it!) This semester I'm gonna be taking a Creative Writing Class for help editing my novels, so that should free me up for some more fanfics! YAAAY!

As usual, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, especially to:

Pyrexprodigy: Lost? How the heck would a review this good get lost! No reviews get lost, I read them all (sometimes multiple times when I'm down because you're all so awesome!) Thanks so much for the long review, it gave me a good boost for finishing up this chapter!

Nathanel: Sort of? That part always kinda confused me in the game since Flowey overrides you in the Neutral Path, but you're still determined enough to not die in the normal path. I kinda see it as two separate things, but you are kinda right. No fic can be perfect ; )

Shadowsora53: Thanks!

J2DoY: Glad to see you again!

Litosns: Thanks for standing up for me! Please don't dunk the rest of the audience, though…:)

For the sake of brevity (and since my fingers are currently in agony) I'm gonna keep individual thanks to folks who commented on the last chapter, but thanks to everyone who commented earlier and didn't get an individual thanks from me! I'll keep responding individually to new comments as much as I can!

Anywhoo, this is kinda just a bridge chapter, so next time we'll see what Chara's got up her sleeve…heehee…

Until then, thanks so much for reading! Please review!

-TAA


	17. Chapter 17

Chara was late this time, Sans observed, reclining on his barstool and popping open his quadrillionth bottle of ketchup. He leaned against the counter of Grillby's as he guzzled the condiment.

The restaurant felt dead, as dead as half the inhabitants of Snowdin. The jukebox still played its easygoing old-timey music, tunes he could have normally listened to for hours without complaint. But without the additional noises of the dogs barking at one another, monsters arguing over card games, and the subtle squeak of a cloth on glass as Grillby obsessively washed his dishes, the music seemed more eerie than relaxing.

There was no place he would rather be, though. At least there was no dust covering the furniture. At least he didn't have to look at the couch and think of how Papyrus had been so excited for the next episode of his favorite show, an episode that he would never get to see.

The skeleton shook his head. Not the time, he reminded himself. Not the time to be sad, not the time to be hopeless. It was a time to get angry, a time to throw every second of pain he had been forced to endure over the many oft-repeated years back into the face of the tardy human child.

He reached one hand up to his eye and drew out one of the human SOULS, an orange one. The fiery heart floated just above his palm, pulsing with more power, more Determination, than any one monster could or should have been able to wield.

 _Well, Daddo…_ thought the skeleton. _Sorry I couldn't just rely on your gift. I know you always wanted me to use it when I…well, did this. Gonna have to cheat just a bit, Pops._

He tucked his other hand under the SOUL, squinting, trying to use his magic to adjust how he saw its color. If he blurred his vision just so, the orange heart almost looked scarlet, crimson as the blood of the human he had almost stolen a red SOUL from. He snarled, anger at what Chara had made him do to his child bubbling up in his hollow breast. If Flowey hadn't acted so brazenly and selflessly, he would be holding Frisk's soul just like this.

He shoved the orange SOUL back into his eye and focused the unimaginable power he had gained on seeing what was going on in the nearby hotel. Flowey was keeping vigil over Frisk and the child was sleeping, curled up on his side. The little boy didn't have Papyrus' habit of sucking his thumb in his sleep. Instead, he wrapped his skinny arms around his little body, as though he was so desperate to show love and affection that even when he slept he needed to embrace something, even if it was only himself.

 _What a cute kid…_ Sans thought, letting his phone fly out of his pocket and setting it on his knee. He took a sip from the ketchup bottle and after confirming that Chara still wasn't in position, he decided to take a moment to look at his device. Alphys might have left him a message a few dozen kills ago, but his phone had been on 'silent' ever since his confrontation with Frisk in the Hall. Nothing spoiled a vengeful FIGHT like a stupid ringtone buzzing right when one was delivering the final blow, after all.

Alphys had, indeed, messaged him no less than fifty times. Pleas, begs, questions as to where he was and if he was okay: _Answer, please! I'm so worried! The Evacuation is now, Sans! Sans! Sans!_

Then silence. Either she had finally left him for dead and gone ahead with the Evacuation or Chara had found her before she could escape. Either way, he didn't bother responding and ignored a tug of guilt in his chest. He hoped she was okay. It didn't really make a difference if she was okay or not. By the end of all this either everyone would be okay or nobody would, after all. Still, the less pain his friends had to experience, the better.

 _Hopefully she didn't watch what happened with Undyne…I know how she feels about her…_

That unpleasant thought caused him to look away from Alphys' messages and notice another notification from a number he didn't recognize. A voicemail.

He hit 'play'.

Flowey's voice emerged first. " _What was that?"_

A small voice, a child's voice slightly distorted by the poor reception and the sound of billowing wind in the background, replied: " _His voicebox. He didn't pick up."_

Sans, skeleton though he was, did have a heart. It was hidden by clothes and a thick, protective layer of magic, but it was there and sometimes, if he focused very hard, he could hear it gently beating.

It stopped right then, when he heard the little boy's disappointed tone. An adorable little voice. He hadn't noticed when the child had uttered a few words in the Hall. He had been too consumed with rage to notice something as trivial as how gentle and sweet the child's voice was.

" _Leave a message anyway,"_ Flowey ordered, worry and ire melting together in his high-pitched tenor. " _Maybe he's just sleeping."_

"' _Kay. Uhm, hi Dad!"_ chirped the child, and Sans felt his still heart plummet to the bottom of his chest cavity. There was that title again, alien to him, and yet he felt a spark of pride at hearing that word and knowing that it was meant for him. It felt like a royal epithet, though he was certain that Asgore would have agreed that being called 'Dad' felt so much better than being called anything else, even 'King'.

 _"Listen, we, uh…"_

" _We?!"_

 _"I! I did something bad and now Flowey and me are back in the Underground. We're gonna head back to Uncle Asgore's castle and try to exit the normal way, but if you can, come pick us up! Bye! Love you!"_

 _Beep!_

The message ended and Sans stared at the phone for a good long while, at the blank contact box which he imagined, in Frisk's timeline, bore a picture of the child. Maybe a family photo. Maybe he was one of _those_ dads, the sort that had three million pictures of his kid on his phone and changed his backdrop to a different picture every week just so he'd have an excuse to show off his child. "Oh, my kid! Yeah, look, here he is with his Uncle Pap, and here he is at Grillby's, and here he is…"

Sans wasn't exactly an active skeleton on most occasions-even before the constant RESETS had made him lose all drive he had been unashamedly lackadaisical, too lackadaisical to think of parenthood. Then, after all the RESETS had started, he had been too busy protecting his brother and keeping an eye out for the anomaly to ever contemplate something as mundane as being a father.

But knowing that he did, in a better time, have a kid made him more happy and worried than anything. Did he spend enough time with Frisk? Hopefully he didn't get too caught up with work, like Gaster had. Did he put a lot of pressure on him? Gaster had always had high expectations for his eldest son, too high in Sans' opinion, but Sans couldn't picture himself becoming easily disappointed with the kid. As long as he was a good kid, that was all that mattered.

Did Frisk laugh at his dad's jokes? Did he groan at his puns like Papyrus did? Papyrus! Pap would have been too delighted to have a little nephew! Sans almost laughed as he imagined Papyrus trying to show the child how to puzzle properly.

He was smiling now, and not just because his face wouldn't let him do much else. Surface or no surface, the thought of such a pleasant little existence, of watching time march on, watching _his_ kid grow, made his heart steadily rise and then, as he thought of Chara, blaze with Determination.

He silenced his phone, eye glowing as he let the SOUL power flow through his stout frame. He wasn't just fighting for the world now. He was fighting for answers to all the questions he had about what sort of father he was. He was fighting to hear the word 'Dad' fall from his child's mouth.

And with a motivation like that, Sans wasn't going to be losing his will to fight anytime soon.

He sensed Chara's approach.

 _Showtime,_ he thought with a chuckle, summoning a screen with a snap of his skeletal fingers.

* * *

Screen.

Sans.

Snark.

Surprise from Asgore.

Same as the last three-hundred and seventeen times. The only difference this time around was that Flowey-2 wasn't at Chara's heels as she and her father faced the child's insufferably casual foe, but that minor difference was so negligible that even Sans didn't take notice. His attention was fully on Chara, and she sensed Determination emanating from the monster. He was even more pissed at her than usual this time around.

 _Fine,_ she thought.

Flowey-2 had asked for a head start, which she had given, delaying Asgore for a good amount of time by asking him if he still had her artwork and wasting the minutes away nodding and smirking as her father showed her his little treasure trove of her sketches and macaroni art.

 _And now,_ she thought, _it's showtime._

While Asgore stepped forward to debate with the skeleton for the hundredth time about Chara's character, the girl squinted at Sans' screen. Sans would have been forgiven for assuming that she was merely glaring at him in spite, but really she was looking behind him, at the bottles.

She saw what she had been looking for: a single sun-colored petal resting on a shot glass. A grin broke out on her stolen face.

She drew her dagger.

"Sans, this is a misunderstanding, I'm sure. My Chara would never harm a soul, human or monster. Now, why don't we all sit down civilly and have a cup of…"

But before he could complete the offer, Asgore cried out as pain consumed him. Chara slashed at his back, and with all the leveling up she had done that was enough to end the Monster King before he could even turn and face the traitor. His fuzzy body turned into a heap of dust.

Even Sans seemed surprised by her sudden brutality. She had ended Asgore last time, of course, but given how their conversation had gone he hadn't thought she would just kill him right away.

 _Maybe she's afraid,_ he thought. _Afraid of feeling something._

Chara stepped forward, standing right on the small mountain of dust that the King of the Mountain had been reduced to. She craned her neck upwards, looking right into Sans' left eye, straight at the SOULS.

"Humans!" she cried, pointing with her dagger to the dust heap she stood upon. "Here! Here's the monster that murdered you! Are you happy? You should be, after everything he did! He pretended to be kind, pretended to be good, but he was a coward! A filthy, cowardly child-murderer! All of the monsters here are the same: they'll act kind, like they just want to be your _friends_ , just want to be _understood,_ just want to protect those they _love_! It's a joke! Isn't that right, Sans? You, all of your kind, you attack lost children and then play innocent! You cry out in pain while you strike us and then pretend to be morally superior when you have blood on your hands! This is why the humans tried to wipe you out! This is why we _should_ have wiped you out! But no…we showed you _mercy!_ We _spared_ your kind, gave you a reduced sentence as it were, and how do you repay us? You do exactly as we knew you would: rip children to shreds and steal their souls!"

She stomped her foot, sending a small flurry of monster dust into the air. "Enough, Souls! Enough being hurt and used by monsters! Help me! Help me! I'm human like you! Help me and we can get revenge together! No more monsters! No more being locked up in little jars! No more being stabbed in the back by 'friends'! Help me and you can be free! Fight with me and we'll never have to worry about monsters ever again!"

At first there was no reaction. The SOULS did not stir. Sans almost sneered at her new plot.

But then his eye began to ache.

* * *

Heyo guys! Long time, no see, but as usual school and work have been kicking my keister. This chapter was originally gonna be super long, but I opted in favor of cutting it apart a bit and giving you the fight scene next time. It'll be beneficial for my update time and my fingers! I'll get back to this as soon as I can (though leaving reviews would certainly motivate me wink wink nudge nudge).

Speaking of reviews! Special thanks to:

Kirbytd3d: Short and sweet!

DannyPhantom619: Agreed : )

Thederpypikachu98: Thanks so much! I tried to do that once, but it really burned me out, having chapters on the backburner! I prefer to get out chapters once I have them, writing too far ahead just slowly kills my drive for some reason (unless I'm writing an original novel, but that's a different story!)

Skyran the Crazy Fangirl: Thank you! That's such a great compliment, especially considering all the great fan work for Undertale! I'll definitely check out your stories if I have time. I'm PERSONALLY not a shipper of Flowey and Frisk: I see them more as a cute sibling duo than as a romantic thing. But either way, I'm glad to have sparked your interest in something writing related!

Karbonkevin: Thanks!

Goldenblaze: You should be! MWAHHAHAHAHA!

Coincidencless: Asgore and Toriel are both boss monsters, but as far as the universe of Undertale goes a Boss Monster is simply a very powerful monster that will give their power to their child as the child ages. My memory of the exact description for Boss Monsters is admittedly a bit shoddy since I haven't played Undertale in awhile, but I DO believe Sans could qualify as a Boss Monster, as could Papyrus and Undyne.

Thanks for all of you for reviewing! 260 reviews! I'm so giddy! And also thanks to everyone who has read so far: this story has had almost 60,000 views since I published it! That is AWESOME!

We still have at least a few chapters folks, though we're beginning to approach the end. Strap in!

I'll be back!


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